i is o 




a 



& 



>^2V>> ~T& 






J2> "O •' " "2- 


3B» ^ • --> J . 




1> . > - 






• ~^> 3> ~ 


3S» ->--J ' - ? 




> E3>/> 


~)Jfcl* _h—~ 




»0 3> J» 


j je* ^ -* 1 ' 


j j 


>>^ rs>.3 


Jfc^ -— ' ^ 








_,> 


3r >J =>2>^) 


1 ^£» ~>< 




~I>0 -2> 


> :2>- -> 


> 




i .s> ^ 


^ 


■^ ^> - r"3 


>~> ^> : 


; 


5 33^5 >j 


SO 3> 


^ 


5> 2feBr>'iSs 


^ 3>^ 


.,2 


> ^Sy^ k?- 


S> j. -5> J3 


-.. 


F>ry^?: 


g>S> j 2> 




S7>^>^>~ 


>jO 2 3> __ 




,jO >30 


3r3S>^ 5>: 




o%53& 


3>DtO". 2> 


i^ 


>0':>"2>> 


2>5J2X; 5>. 


.-_ 


j> > A>l>-- 


&i>"X>"> J3»_ 


_^ 


-v--> V;> > 


2>D-3r>^:5> 





8> 3 3F 









3xo> o 


>X> 


~>30j nj 


j^>^> 


2X>5V>: 


,o> 


xro > i 5 


X£X^ 


>-»:>,, 


SS5> 


> 3* > v ; 


Z> CO 


s>:>»^ 


^03> 


0)03- 


^ 


^OOCD 


i 55 


£>S>£*>-> 


;s>>> _ 


:> ~>30j 


;> > j 


> :>~>j 3 


-, 


5>3>^ 


. 


^3 SO 


5 


3 ^ .>} 








_ '12>2> ^ 



2» 3>3 






library of (Kangwisisu 



o / n 

Q 00 r ^ U? ^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



53 ^3> 



: 3> >>i. 












^L2> ^0> 





*? 






5 






3»> 

1X> 




«=J** 




> 


•j 


>~j > 


3»: 


v> 


-^S^ 


5>vx> > 


> . 


> 


- ^ 




> ^3> 


> 


-""^tKL 


^35. _3~ 


> > 


^>. 


•^ 


»^ 


t> 2 


y^Jgfr 


8S^£> : 


yj> 


3 


r> 


>;^5» 




=z££* 


^o>Z>^> : 


j>; 


y> 


-> 




"*^30»6' 


o_ 


J*> 




)J 


J> 


> 


i 3! 5>5 


y^p 


7n 










** 


f £» t 


_S^' 


> 
> 

b 
> 2 






5 " 


> 






is 


>'- j 


> ^>^ 


"^»^ 














'-- >^> """ 


3» / - 


J), 


^> 


3»^> 




^ 


> 


-^ 2> 


^^^> 






>j»> ^> 


j > 


X 








T> 


> 


3» -> 


■) i 


> 


» o ,: 




-T* 



m 



, ^ >3 >i> 
>3 33 3>< 

^>^> _§ 

:>:> T> 04 

. 3;> 33 - 
33 3> 3 

Zi ^> » :3>-_ 

333> 3 

X"^ Z> ^> ^_ 

:?^^^ 

-3>33 _ 

><:>3C*3V 
,0 ^_ 

333. 

3 X> l£ 



is>>r^R> 



^:>l 



3s^>3 



3>«0 



3>x> 

3^3 






> 3 so 3 

" 3PDl>3: 
»X>~X^ 

sssx>:>3s 

. -:>2?*o>- 

!>>J2*X3--> 

^3*0> 
1 -3>3X^> 



3T3D?>X> 

2)38) 

SOSES* 

33>X> 

3OTP 
3>3~X> 



»l> 






33 j>: 
3>I3 : 



> 3 X 32> 3 3>3 
3 3 32> ;> 2>3> 

3" 3> » 3 >>3 
-3 3)3D 3 3>Z> 
'3;3>33>.3 2X>. 

3^33)^33 -" 
^> »^> 3 2>J> > 

• 33 aO>3^3> : 
^Q3g^3 3 -> ^ 

^ >3 U3T2> 3 >^ 

; 3 3 J33> >3>~ 
,3J>33>3 

» 3S> 
Q3 :/3B. 

4* .^Si)3V 

' ^>3^3^i 

>-' 43^>» &?< 

-3^?jX>:o3>3 

^^53^3>-), 



/ 



A FAMILIAR EPISTLE 



TO 



ROBERT J. WALKER. 



4 



A FAMILIAR EPISTLE 



•: 



TO 



ROBERT J. WALKER, 

FORMERLY OF PENNSYLVANIA, LATER OF MISSISSIPPI, MORE 

RECENTLY OF WASHINGTON, AND LAST HEARD OF 

IN MR. COXWELL'S BALLOON. 



FROM 

AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A BIOGRAPHICAL SKEICH. 

— " Ridentem dicere verum 
Quid vetat ?"— Horace. 




TENTH THOUSAND. 



LONDON: 
SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO., 

66, BROOK STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. 
I86 3 . 

[The right of Translation is reserved. ,] 



£4^ 



"The avowed object of this party is the immediate abolition of 
Slavery. For this they traverse sea and land, for this they hold con- 
ventions in the capital of England, and there they brood over schemes 
of abolition in association with British Societies. There they join in 
denunciations of their countrymen, until their hearts are filled with 
treason, and they return home Americans in name but Englishmen in 
feelings and principles. Let us all then feel and know, whether we live 
North or South, that this party, if not vanquished, must overthrow the 
Government and dissolve the Union." — Extract from Letter of Hon. 
R. J. Walker, Jan. 8th, 1 844, in favour of Annexation of Texas. 

a If my voice could reach even the Black Republican party, I would 
say, Re-assemble your convention, re-nominate your candidates if you 
please, elect them if you can, take all the spoils, but tear down your 
African platform ere you endorse it at the polls, and give to the South a 
perfect justification for (withdrawing from the Union." — Robert J. 
Walker in 1856. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



ROBERT J. WALKER. 



It is a trite remark that cc the world never knows its 
greatest men." The word cc Walker/' being familiar 
to London ears only as a cant term employed by vulgar 
little boys to express incredulity, it may be proper to 
preface the reply to some letters lately addressed by a 
person of that name to the British public, by a slight 
sketch of his past history. 

Robert J. Walker was once a man of mark in 
America, and has held some, if not all, of the titles 
which, with Republican simplicity, he affixes to his 
name. He is about as old as the century. Born and 
educated in Pennsylvania, after a futile attempt to ob- 
tain public office and position in his native State, he 
migrated to Mississippi, then almost a wilderness, with 
but 55,000 inhabitants. Here the shrewd and plausible 
young Yankee pushed himself rapidly forward to for- 
tune and place, till at last the highest honour the State 
could confer was given him, in 1836. He was then 
made one of her senators in Congress, in which post 
he remained until 1845, thus filling that position at the 



VI 



very period of the act of Repudiation by his two States, 
(native and adopted), and before his successor in the 
Senate, Jefferson Davis, had entered public life. Mr. 
Walker was then, and for twenty years afterwards, a 
most cc ultra-Southern " man in his sentiments, or at 
least in his speeches ; including the most violent 
advocacy of State rights and Slavery. In fact, like 
most men of Northern birth domiciled in the South, he 
out-heroded Herod in his violent affection for Southern 
doctrines and interests ; and on this account, when 
the Southern administration of Mr. Polk came into 
power, a seat in his Cabinet was accorded to Mr. 
Walker. 

On the 3rd March, 1845, ^ e kft tne Senate, and 
took the post of Secretary of the Treasury — not 
cc Minister of Finance," as he terms himself ; for that 
office does not exist in the United States, and its duties 
are performed by the Chairman of the Finance Com- 
mittee of the House of Representatives, not by the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. He supported warmly the measures 
and principles of the Southern party while in the Senate 
and during his term of office, and here ends the most 
respectable part of his career. He never returned to 
Mississippi ; but after 1845 lived chiefly in Washing- 
ton and New York, professing to practise law in the 
Supreme Court, but really occupied in various specula- 
tions ; his ideas, unlike his stature, being on the largest 
scale. 

Jefferson Davis succeeded him in the Senate, and 



Vll 

years after, when he had been almost forgotten as a 
public man, Robert J. Walker made a brief reappear- 
ance in public life, through the friendly suggestion of 
the man he now defames. President Pierce, in 1856, 
first nominated him cc Commissioner to China," a title 
he now assumes, but on the duties of which he never 
entered, as he resigned his commission immediately. 
Mr. Buchanan, desirous of being useful to him (it 
is said at Mr. Davis's suggestion), appointed him 
Governor of the Territory of Kansas. This office 
Mr. Walker held only one year, Mr. Buchanan having 
been compelled to v/ithdraw him in consequence of his 
abandonment of the policy and principles of the Admi- 
nistration, and his management of that territory, then 
in a state of revolution. On his first arrival there, 
Mr. Walker's despatches denounced as cc a band of 
disorganisers and revolutionists " the very men and the 
very party whom he afterwards joined ; and from that 
hour he has been the sworn foe of the friends, political 
associates, and principles of his whole previous life : 
for Robert J. Walker was the first to insist on the 
recognition of Texas as a Slave State, and for the 
benefit of the Slave States, a cc shrieker " then, not for 
cc Union," but for cc strict State Rights ;" a denouncer 
of Abolitionists and Englishmen, whom he placed in 
the same category ; himself a slave-owner and an 
able defender of that cc institution" — in fact, the very 
reverse, in practice and in profession, of all he now pre- 
sumes to preach to the people of England. 



Vlll 

We must pay the tribute of involuntary respect to 
the courage of the ruthless Danton, though we shudder 
at his crimes ; but we have only contemptuous pity for 
Cf Joseph Surface/' fine as his cc sentiments" may be ; 
and it cannot be doubted that the British public will 
reiterate the honest execration of Sir Peter Teazle to 
the present Joseph — 

cf D — n your Sentiments !" 

HIS POLITICAL RECORD. 

From a most valuable work, recently published by 
George M c Henry, of Pennsylvania, on the Cotton 
Trade, and collateral topics,* we extract the following 
items regarding the political antecedents of Mr. 
Walker :— 

HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 

Mr. Walker, in the whole course of his career in 
Mississippi, in Congress, and indeed up to the year 
1858, was a strong State Rights man, with extreme 
Southern sentiments. He began as early as 1826 to 
cc agitate" the annexation of Texas, repudiating the 
Treaty of 18 19 with Spain, and with persevering energy 
accomplished his wishes. It was not, however, until 
March 3, 1836, that Texas cc seceded" from the 
Mexican Union. This act was followed by the Battle 

* The Cotton Trade : Its Bearing upon the Prosperity of Great 
Britain and the American Republics, &c. &c. By George M'Henry. 
London : Saunders, Otley, & Co. 1863. 



IX 



of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, in which Santa Anna 
was taken prisoner, and on May 20, 18365 the Mexi- 
can Government passed a decree annulling all stipula- 
tions made between him and the C( rebels." 

Mr. Walker having opposed, on March 2, 1839, 
the pretensions of England concerning the Maine 
boundary question, and likewise having taken part, on 
February 16, 1843, against the assumption by the 
Federal Government of the State debts, which idea he 
charged as being of cc British origin," combined with 
his actions in regard to Texas, made him quite 
popular throughout the Union ; and in October 1843, 
he was put forward by tht Democrats of his own 
State as an eligible candidate for the Vice-Presidency. 
On November 25, 1843, he was addressed by a 
number of the citizens of Kentucky, who requested 
his views on the topics of the day. His reply, dated 
January 8, 1844, was very long, extracts from which 
are subjoined, as noticed above. This letter, although 
Mr. Dallas was selected by the National Democratic 
Convention as a candidate for the Vice- Presidency, 
was used as an electioneering pamphlet, and induced 
Mr. Polk to invite Mr. Walker to a seat in his 
Cabinet. 

HIS OPINION' OF ENGLISH ABOLITIONISTS. 

Extract from a Letter of the Hon. Robert J. Walker, January 8, 1844, 
in favour of the Annexation of Texas. 

" The only remaining objection is the question of Slavery. And have 
we a question which is to curtail the limits of the Republic — to threaten 
its existence —to aim a deadly blow at all its great and vital interests — to 



court alliances with foreign and hostile powers — to recal our commerce 
and expel our manufactures from bays and rivers that once were all our 
own — to strike down the flag of the Union, as it advances towards our 
ancient boundary — to surrender a mighty Territory, and invite to its oc- 
cupancy the deadliest (in truth, the only) foes this Government has ever en- 
countered ? Is anti-slavery to do all this ? And is it so to endanger New 
Orleans, and the Valley and commerce and outlet of the West, that we 
would hold them, not by our own strength, but by the slender tenure 
of the will and of the mercy of Great Britain ? If anti- slavery can 
effect all this, may God, in His infinite mercy, save and perpetuate this 
Union — for the efforts of man would be feeble and impotent. The 
avowed object of this party is the immediate abolition of slavery. For 
this they traverse sea and land ; for this they hold conventions in the 
capital of England; and there they brood over schemes of abolition in 
association voith British Societies ; there they join in denunciations of their 
countrymen until their hearts are filled with treason ; and they return 
home, Americans in name, but Englishmen in feelings and principles. 
Let us all, then, feel and know, whether we live North or South, that 
this party, if not vanquished, must overthrow the Government and 
dissolve the Union. This party propose the immediate abolition of 
slavery throughout the Union. If this were practicable, let us look at 
the consequences; by the returns of the slaveholding States, in 1840^ 
amounting in value to 404,429,368 dols. These products, then, of the 
South must have alone enabled it to furnish a home market for all the 
surplus manufactures of the North, as also a market for the product of 
its forests and fisheries — and giving a mighty impulse to all its com- 
mercial and navigating interests. Now, nearly all these agricultural 
products of the South which accomplish all these great purposes, is the 
result of slave-labour; and, strike down these products by the im- 
mediate abolition of slavery, and the markets of the South, for want of 
the means of purchase, will be lost to the people of the North ; and 
North and South will be involved in one common ruin. Yes, in the 
harbours of the North (at Philadelphia, New York, and Boston) the 
vessels would rot at their wharves for want of exchangeable products to 
carry ; the building of ships would cease, and the grass would grow in 
many a street now enlivened by an active and progressive industry. In 
the interior, the railroads and canals would languish for want of business ; 
and the factories and manufacturing towns and cities, decaying and de- 
serted, would stand as blasted monuments of the folly of man. One 
universal bankruptcy would overspread the country, together with all 
the demoralisation and crime which ever accompany such a catastrophe ; 
and the notices at every corner would point only to sales on execution, 
by the constable, the sheriff, the marshal, and the auctioneer ; whilst 



XI 



the beggars would ask us in the streets, not for money, but for bread. 
Dark as the picture may be, it could not exceed the gloomy reality. 
Such would be the effects in the North, whilst in the South no human 
heart can conceive, nor pen describe, the dreadful consequences. Let us 
look at another result to the North. The slaves being emancipated, not 
by the South, but by the North, would fly there for safety and pro- 
tection ; and three millions of free blacks would be thrown at once, as 
if by a convulsion of nature, upon the States of the North. They 
would come there, to their friends of the North who had given them 
freedom, to give them also habitation, food, and clothing; and not 
having it to give, many of them would perish from want and exposure j 
whilst the wretched remainder would be left to live as they could, by 
theft or charity ; they would still be a degraded caste, free only in name, 
without the reality of freedom. A few might earn a wretched and 
precarious subsistence by competing with the white labourers of the 
North, and reducing their wages to the lowest point in the sliding scale 
of starvation and misery ; whilst the poor-house and the jail, the asylums 
of the deaf and dumb, the blind, the idiot, and insane, would be filled 
to overflowing, if indeed any asylum could be afforded to the millions 
of the negro race whom wretchedness and crime would drive to despair 
and madness." 



Jefferson Davis having been selected as Secretary 
of War by President Pierce, entered upon the duties 
of that office March 4, 1853. Through his influence 
in the Cabinet, Mr. Walker was appointed Commis- 
sioner to China. He received his outfit, but did not 
enter upon the mission, and returned the amount ad- 
vanced him by the Government for that purpose. At 
Mr. Davis's request, President Buchanan selected Mr. 
Walker for the Governorship of the Territory of 
Kansas, and on May 25, 1857, he delivered his 
address to the people of that district, which had 
become infested by a band of Abolitionists from 
Massachussetts. 

Governor Walker, in his first despatch to the 



Xll 

Federal Secretary of State, under date of June 2, 
1857, alluded to the efforts of the Abolitionists to dis- 
regard the law ; and on the 14th he called for troops 
to defend the Territory from their actions. The next 
day j July 15, he writes that, — 

cc This movement at Lawrence was the beginning 
" of a plan, originating in that city, to organize insur- 
cc rection throughout the Territory ; and especially in 
" all towns, cities, or counties where the Republican 
£C party have a majority. Lawrence is the hotbed of 
cc all the Abolition movements in the Territory. It is 
<c the town established by the Abolition Societies of 
cc the East, and whilst there are respectable people 
Cf there, it is filled by a considerable number of mer- 
cc cenaries, who are paid by Abolition Societies to 
iC perpetuate and diffuse agitation throughout Kansas, 
cc and prevent a peaceful settlement cf this question. 
<c Having failed in inducing their own so called To- 
" peka State Legislature to organize this insurrection, 
" Lawrence has committed it herself, and, if not ar- 
<c rested, the rebellion will extend throughout the 

cc Territory In order to send this commu- 

cc nication immediately by mail, I must close by as- 
iC suring you that the spirit of rebellion pervades the 
<c great mass of the Republican party of this Territory, 
cc instigated, as I entertain no doubt they are, by 
<c Eastern Societies." 

Yet notwithstanding these declarations, Mr. Walker 
finally cc sympathized" with the very desperadoes that 
he complains of, and was in consequence removed from 
his position by President Buchanan. Mr. Walker 
ceased from that moment to have any influence ; but, 



Xlll 

taking advantage of the crusade against the Souths he 
delivered two violent Northern spread-eagle speeches 
at Brooklyn and New York, after the fall of Fort 
Sumter in 1861, on April 23 and May 30 ; and he 
has since been more or less connected with the Lincoln 
administration. It is said by the newspapers that he 
has been the chief adviser of Mr. Chase, the Federal 
Secretary of the Treasury ; and it is alleged that he is 
now in Europe as the representative of that department. 

HIS OPINION AS TO STATE RIGHTS. 

In a letter addressed to Mr. Arthur Davies, dated 
London, January 12, 1852, Mr. Walker wrote as 
follows : — cc The United States of America are a con- 
cc federated Republic, formed by, and composed of 
cc separate States, with a written constitution, limiting 
cc and designating the powers granted by these States 
cc to the general Government, all others being reserved 

cc to the States themselves We think, also, 

<f that it has been confirmed by long and uniform expe- 
cc rience in our country, and that all our Presidents 
<c chosen by the people, from Washington to Fillmore, 
cc all included, in moral worth, in exemplary deportment y 
cc public and private, in talents and patriotism, were 
cc very far superior to any monarchs, who, during any 
cc period of the world, have, for an equal period of 
cc time, been placed by hereditary descent and accident 
cc at the head of any country." , 



A LETTER, 



ETC. 



John 'Groat's House, 
Oct. 30th, 1863. 

Friend Robert, — 

From our townsman Obadiah Dun- 
shunner, now visiting Europe as a patriotic con- 
tractor, or in avoidance of the conscription recently 
enforced by cc the freest government on the face of 
the earth," I learned your arrival in England, on the 
" secret " mission which you have contrived to make 
so public. 

He has also sent me your three letters, and the story 
of your balloon ascension on the 12th instant with 
Mr. Coxwell, all of which, he tells me, has hugely 
diverted John Bull, who turned a deaf ear to cc the 
words of truth and soberness " uttered by your 
worthy predecessors, George Francis Train and Cas- 
sius Marcellus Clay, and had hardened his heart 
against the gospel of love and peace, as expounded by 
Brothers Beecher and Brownlow, condensed by the 
latter into this pithy formula — 



The fact is, these Britishers are so old-fashioned 
that they cannot understand the improved methods 
adopted by us in our Model Republic as regards 
Liberty, Morality, Religion, and the Art of War. 

However, with your and Brother Beecher's help, 
something may be done to dispel their ignorance, 
even without the strong lights of Greek and Hell fire 
being projected into their midst, as recommended by 
our amiable friend Winter Davis the other day, — at 
least until after we have cf crushed the rebellion." 

I take the privilege of old friendship in saying 
that we, who -know your whole history, thought it 
one of old Abe's best jokes to have sent you, rocked 
from infancy in the cradle of Repudiation — Penn- 
sylvanian born and bred, and thence migrating to 
Mississippi, whose senator in Congress you were at 
the very period of its adoption there — to make a 
show of virtuous indignation against it and Jefferson 
Davis (who had nothing to do with it), for the first 
time fourteen years afterwards, in London. Such an 
example of tardy repentance is edifying indeed ! — ■ 
were it not slightly suspicious under the circumstances. 

John Bull and his bondholders may love money 
much, but they love truth, honour, and manhood 
more ; and I am really afraid that neither your 
figures of speech nor your figures of arithmetic can 
counteract the damaging effects of a plain statement 
of plain facts in regard to these very affairs, on 
which you have so largely and so unctuously des- 



canted. Unhappily, all the natives of Pennsylvania 
of the old Democratic party are not so cc loyal " as 
yourself, nor blessed with such convenient memories, 
for that obstinate fellow George M c Henry has just 
reviewed you, and quoted your own old speeches 
against your present opinions, in a way which you 
must regard as exceedingly unkind and ungentleman- 
like. 

Macbeth could not have relished less the apparition 
of the bleeding Banquo at his little family dinner, 
than you, O Robert, the resurrection of your long 
buried speeches, whose grave, at M'Henry's bidding, 
"hath ope'd its ponderous jaws to cast them forth 
again." 

Your old acquaintances, who have watched your 
devious steps from the good old days of your Missis- 
sippi cc kite-flying " to your late ascension in Mr. 
Coxwell's balloon (whose specific levity could not 
greatly have exceeded your own), must cheerfully 
admit that you have fully carried out Mr. Lincoln's 
joke in your three 

LETTERS 

OF 

HON. ROBERT J. WALKER, M.A., 

COUNSELLOR AT LAW IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

LATE LAW REP. MI., SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES, 

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, COMMISSIONER TO CHINA, 

GOVERNOR OF KANSAS, ETC. ETC. 

The pampered aristocrats of England must stare at 
the string of titles appended to your very Democratic 

c 



name, but your balloon excursion must have opened 
their admiring eyes still wider. cc It was a dream of 
the Hon. R. J. W.'s life," says the delighted Coxwell, 
"to enjoy this spectacle/' &c. Little knew that 
sailor of the air the stuff your cc dreams " were made 
of— that you sought thus to gain a bird's eye view of 
that distant China to which you may have been once 
Cf Commissioner/' but which you have never seen. 
Or that other cc dream " of the fulfilment of the 
threat of your friend Winter Davis, who seeks to 
forestall Lord Macaulay's New Zealander in standing 
on the ruins of London Bridge — thus depriving you 
of the view. Hence your haste, and the adoption of 
that unusual and insecure conveyance — the balloon. 
Or it may be the cunning Cox well, seeing the quan- 
tity of gas contained in your productions, took you 
up as an exhaustless gasometer. 

As each and all of these letters lack superscription, 
address, or visible correspondent, in manifest plagiarism 
of Mr. Toots' correspondence in cc Dombey and Son," 
and all (in imitation of other late serial romances) are 
advertised cc to be continued in our next," in virtue of 
old acquaintance I shall adopt these unfortunate found- 
lings, regard them as addressed to myself, and proceed 
to respond to them. 

But before doing so, let us revive some reminis- 
cences of Cf auld lang syne." No one has had greater 
reason than yourself to mourn the proverbial ingra- 
titude of republics, and although the versatility of 



your genius, which has led you to espouse all sides of 
every question (as they happened to come uppermost), 
has excited the suspicion of inconsistency and insin- 
cerity, no one that knows you can deny that you, like 
the Vicar of Bray, have always been faithful to your- 
self and to your own interests. Yet, after devoting 
the best part of your life to the public service (in 
every capacity that paid), the ungrateful Democracy 
literally cc turned you out to grass," at the expiration 
of your term in the Treasury department, so grace- 
fully eulogised by yourself. 

Vainly withdrawn from your pleasant pastures in 
1S57, by Davis and Buchanan, only to sink into the 
cc Slough of Despond " in Kansas, your labours seemed 
to be over. But tossed up again to the surface among 
other wrecks, by the great wave of the new Revolu- 
tion, and swept even across the Atlantic, the un- 
grateful Seward, who (as he told the sympathetic 
Lyons) has only to ring one of those two bells on his 
right or left hand to imprison any impertinent editor 
in the cc Free North," allows your signal services 
abroad to be thus characterised by the New York 
Daily News, the organ of the Democracy. 

ROBERT J. WALKER. 
(From the News of October 1863.) 

" If my voice could reach even the Black Republican party, I would 
say, re-assemble your convention, re-nominate your candidates if you 
please, elect them if you can, take all the spoils, but tear down your 
African platform ere you indorse it at the polls, and give to the South a 
perfect justification for withdrawing from this Union." 

C % 



" This was uttered by Mr. Robert J. Walker in 
" 1856. He is now in the enjoyment of some lucrative 
cc office abroad, under the Lincoln Administration, and, 
" like all renegades, is worse than ten Turks in his de- 
" nunciations of the Democratic party. He is what is 
cc called a War Democrat of the most violent type, 
cc which simply means a Democrat who has turned Re- 
<c publican in consideration of certain emoluments of 
Cf office, and upon the receipt of which he will endea- 
cc vour to harmonize his former inconsistencies, and use 
" his former Democracy as a decoy duck to allure 
<c others to his position." 

After such another proof of Republican ingratitude, 
well may you, O Robert, seek the purer air in Mr. 
CoxwelTs balloon, and remain up there (if practicable), 
for on the surface of the earth there can be no resting- 
place for a foot or a fancy as erratic as yours — no 
refuge from the resurrection of your own old speeches, 
when you were a Slaveholding and a States Rights 
Democrat. 

To begin at once with your Letter No. I., of July 
1. It has this taking caption in addition to the for- 
mula of titles given above, printed in Mr. Ridgway's 
largest type — 

JEFFERSON DAVIS 

AND 

REPUDIATION. 

The whole end and aim of this letter is to identify 
the name of Jefferson Davis with the unsavoury name 
of Repudiation ; and if the execution of the design 



had only equalled the conception, your political suc- 
cess would have surpassed your financial, to the 
memory of which you so fondly recur. But in the 
frankness of friendship I must show you how badly 
the promise of the advertisement is fulfilled ; the taking 
title reduced to a nullity. I have wandered in vain 
through the long labyrinth of words which covers 
fifty-eight pages, and have found no clue to Jefferson 
Davis therein. To use a western phrase familiar to 
you, if there be cc a nigger on the fence," it must be, 
not Jeff. Davis, but Robert J. Walker. For it is 
evident that it was the sly fox Walker, not the grim 
wolf Davis, who played the lion's part in Mississippi 
politics at and after the time when that cc deed without 
a name " was consummated. That you should have 
taken the trouble to establish this so conclusively is 
another proof of the incurable artlessness and unsel- 
fishness which have characterised you throughout life, 
and left you Mr. Lincoln's cc Incomplete Letter 
writer " at the close of your long career. 

I must admire, however, the graceful affectation 
with which you commence your letter : cc Soon after 
cc my arrival in London from New York my attention 
a was called by some English as well as American 
cc friends, to an article which had appeared, more than 
<c a month previously, in the London Times of the 23rd 
cc March last." You then take up Mr. Slidell's note in 
the money article of the Times on the collateral ques- 
tion of the identity of Jefferson and of Reuben Davis 



respectively, a question promptly settled by the Times 
the day after it was raised. Mr. Slidell, in a brief 
note to a friend (evidently not meant for publication), 
had suggested that possibly some people abroad might 
confound the two names, and on this loop you strive 
to hang an intentional misrepresentation of your own, 
viz., that cc Jefferson " and not cc Reuben " was cc the 
repudiator in 1849." 

This was an ingenious dodge, Robert. It is one of 
those half truths which is a sneaking way of telling a 
whole falsehood. By it the British public was induced 
to believe that the act of Repudiation was perpetrated 
in 1 849, and by the advice and instigation of Jefferson 
Davis, for you go on to say, cc these views of Mr. 
Jefferson Davis attracted my most earnest attention, 
because, after a brief interval, he was one of my suc- 
cessors in the Senate of the United States. I had 
always earnestly opposed the doctrine of Repudiation 
in Mississippi, &c, &c." 

I must do you justice to say that this is a piece of 
smartness worthy of a 'cute Yankee of the Barnum 
school — a kind of moral mermaid, got up for the 
mystification of the public of these green islands. 

If Mr. Slidell, a veteran politician, admits his want 
of familiarity with the real history and merits of this 
local question, dead and buried twenty years ago, and 
forgotten by everybody except the British bondholders, 
who took it then (on spec) at five cents in the dollar, 
how could the British public be expected to detect the 



ingenious ruse ? and although it was sure to be found 
out and exposed at last (as all untruths are) yet is it 
not a maxim in our new Ethics on the other side of 
the water, that cc a lie well stuck to is better than 
truth ?" 

Stick to it therefore ! but why should you in the 
same breath refresh our memories as to the date of 
these transactions ? reminding us, that when Missis- 
sippi passed the act of Repudiation, and for several 
years afterwards, you were her trusted and most in- 
fluential politician, and Jefferson Davis (not Reuben) 
unconnected with politics or politicians in any shape ; 
he having then retired from the army in which he had 
distinguished himself in the Indian Campaigns, re- 
entering it in 1846, as Colonel of the Mississippi regi- 
ment to take part in the war with Mexico. As a 
reward for his gallantry at Buena Vista, President Polk 
named him Brigadier-general, and it is characteristic of 
the foolish obstinacy of the man (which he calls con- 
sistency) that he declined the promotion, on the ground 
that the President of the United States had .no autho- 
rity under the constitution to make such an appoint- 
ment — that it was an infringement of the rights of the 
sovereign States. 

How you, O Robert, snugly and safely sitting at 
that time in the cabinet of Mr. Polk, by a warm fire, 
and v/ith a better salary than Lincoln now gives you, 
must have snickered over the scruples of the stubborn 
soldier, pursuing that cc bubble honour," concerning 



IO 

which you, I, and Jack FalstafF have ever held the 
same practical opinions. 

Pardon the digression. The joke really was so 
good that I could not refrain from tickling your ribs 
with it. 

The only appearance of Jeff. Davis in Mississippi 
during those years was in the very unimportant func- 
tion of Presidential Elector (a nominal responsibility 
only) , in 1844, three years after the Repudiation ques- 
tion had been settled, and again in 1845, in Congress of 
the United States., as representative for one year. He 
had resigned his seat in Congress to go to the Mexican 
war, as before stated, and did not actively commence 
his public life until 1847 ; never having said, spoken, 
or v/ritten anything about Repudiation until 1849, 
eight years after its demise, like a tardy Antony de- 
livering a funeral oration over the disinterred body of 
a slaughtered Csesar. You and I know very well, 
Robert, that he was not Cf in at the death," as you 
were ; and that he never was Governor of Mississippi, 
or held any office of profit or trust in that State in the 
whole course of his life ; and that your attempt to 
saddle him with the responsibility for acts in which he 
had n3 art or part, is an adroit afterthought of your 
own. Artful dodger that you are ! neither the angular 
Abram, nor the subtle Seward could have devised a 
prettier plot. But why mar it by your mouthing and 
grimacing at the audience, before the scenes, in your 
own proper person ? 



II 



Robert ! Robert ! your vanity must surely have got 
the better of your discretion, when recalling your own 
biography, and enumerating your own past honours, 
you prove yourself (by figures that cannot lie) an 
accessory before the fact, when the deed was done — 
present, if not aiding and abetting — and can only find 
a letter dated eight years afterwards, to criminate Jeff. 
Davis, who then first appears on the scene. People 
will ask if you, by your own admission, were really 
the man of the day in Mississippi from 1836 to 1845, 
when the act was concerted and perpetrated, how came 
it to pass that your opposition to the measure did not 
in that most democratic State, impede your advance- 
ment, and destroy your popularity ? and if you had 
really and truly (as you affirm), cc always earnestly 
opposed the doctrine of Repudiation in Mississippi," 
how does it happen that in sending over to America 
for the proofs against Jeff. Davis, you did not also 
obtain some eloquent extracts from your own writings 
or speeches, to that effect ? 

Even had the proofs obtained from the other side of 
the water been sufficient to establish Jefferson Davis's 
responsibility in the matter of Repudiation (nine 
years after the fact), that would not clear your skirts 
from complicity in the act at the time, you having 
been present, if not actively assisting. 

An informer is not bound to criminate himself, it is 
true, when he patriotically assists justice on his com- 
rades ; but although he may escape legal penalties in 



12 

his own person, yet his moral guilt is not purged by 
the conviction of his fellow-criminals, either in the eye 
of God or Man. Those who cc love the treason/' 
still may cc hate the traitor," according to those ugly 
old proverbs, which pithily express the common sense 
of mankind. 

Why were the thunders of your voice hushed during 
those memorable years, while Repudiation stalked 
rampant over Mississippi, Cf alive and kicking ?" 
Why wait to waste your blows and buffets on its 
corpse ? Moreover, you were at Washington as 
cc Counsellor- at-Law," when that impudent j efferson 
(not Reuben) Davis, who had superseded you as Sena- 
tor, wrote and published those two letters which then 
horrified you so much. Why was your ready pen 
idle then — left to grow rusty with the ink and gall now 
so profusely poured forth ? 

These inquisitive Scotchmen will most imperti- 
nently persist in pestering your unfortunate friend with 
these leading questions. How am I to answer them ? 

But you plunge deeper into the quagmire a little 

further on, page 34 of your letter, when you say : 

cc Mississippi was the first repudiating State ; A. G. 
cc McNutt, the first repudiating Governor ; and Jef- 
cc ferson Davis, the first repudiating Senator. As 
cc another evidence of the incredible extent to which 
Cf the public sentiment of that day was debased, I 
cc quote the following passage from Governor McNutt's 
cc message of 1840, proposing to repeal the Bank Char- 
cc ters, and to legalize the forgery of their notes : 
cc c The issuing of paper money, in contravention of 



J 3 

" the repealing act, could be effectually checked by 
" the abrogation of all laws making it penal to forge 
" such paper.' — Sen. Jour. p. $3. Surely, nothing but 
" the fell spirit of slavery could have dictated such a 
" sentiment." 

Do you give your readers so little credit for 
memory as to suppose they could have forgotten that 
you had just informed them on a previous page that 
"that day" (1840) on which you declare the public 
sentiment to have been cc so debased " in Mississippi, 
you were her Senator and leading politician, and 
for several successive " days " afterwards, to wit, 
until '45. 

Governor McNutt, your former friend, is in his 
grave ; he cannot contradict you. The " fell spirit of 
slavery " at that day found in you one of its most 
earnest advocates. Mississippi, " the first repudiating 
State," gave you wealth, honour, almost all the titles 
you parade so proudly ; and did not " repudiate" you 
until long years afterwards. But Jefferson Davis still 
lives, and you may well be justly proud of the con- 
trast afforded to the world by your present " loyalty!" 
and his " treason I" 

cc Loyalty " to the friends of one's youth and man- 
hood — to the State and people who gave bread and 
honours to the struggling stranger from a distant 
region — to the principles and the institutions among 
which the better part of one's life has passed, is deemed 
honourable among men of every nation and every 
clime ; but how much rarer and purer is that " loyalty" 



U 

which out of prejudices such as these, under the 
" higher Law " promulgated by the Prophet Seward, 
can extract materials for proving how bad, base, 
and worthless that place and those people really were ! ! ! 

But I fear that the unenlightened people of despotic 
and decrepid Europe cannot appreciate the sublimity 
of the sacrifice made by you in this respect ; and 
may impute your cc last speech and confession " to 
meaner motives. 

Sidney Smith, that wicked wit, who also wrote 
"Letters on American Debts" many years ago (very un- 
like yours, it must be admitted), did not, if my memory 
serves me, address those letters to the State of your 
adoption, Mississippi, but to that of your birth, Penn- 
sylvania ; and those letters were written in cc that day " 
to which you so feelingly recur. That pleasing writer, 
referring to some little transactions in Pennsylvania, 
almost echoes your words (twenty years in advance) : 

cc I repeat, again, that no conduct was ever more 
cc profligate than that of the State of Pennsylvania. 
cc History cannot pattern it ; and let no deluded being 
<c imagine they will ever repay a single farthing. 
cf Their people have tasted the dangerous luxury of 
cc dishonesty, and they will never be brought back to 
cc the homely rule of right. The money transactions 
cc of the Americans are become a byword among the 
cc nations of Europe. In every grammar-school of 
<c the Old World c Ad Grascas Calendas ' is translated 
" the American dividends." 

So wrote the witty Sidney, wincing under the 
smart of his unpaid Pennsylvanian bonds. And he 






+5 

adds a hint of which you evidently have availed 
yourself in your spasmodic shrieks against the South- 
ern President and the Southern People as wicked 
wretches who never pay ! 

cc For," says Sidney Smith, cc Bull is naturally dis- 
posed to love you, but he loves nobody who does not 
pay him. His imaginary paradise is some planet of 
punctual payment, where ready money prevails, and 
where debt and discount are unknown." Into that 
paradise of John Bull's have your feet ever wandered, 
oh ! my friend ? If so, it must have been in your 
latter days, when, 

" Though lost to sight, 
To memory dear," 

the people of that iC first repudiating State," your 
former residence, refreshed their memory of you by 
looking at their ledgers. 

That odd fellow, Tom Hood, years ago ridiculed 
American Credit worse than you do now, in a small 
print, entitled, cc The only safe American Securities." 
The drawing represented the Stocks, into which the 
feet of country culprits are usually introduced. And 
Mr. Thackeray in 1862 addressed his letters to Messrs. 
Broadway and Battery, of New York, in the Cornhill 
Magazine, and not to any Southern Bankers. 

You are very complimentary to the Times for its 
expose of the Mississippi matter, and take up the 
cudgels for it, and for the British bondholders against 
the cruel calumnies of Jeff. Davis in his letter in 1849. 



i6 

But the 'Times really does not merit your gushing 
gratitude. Take out your spectacles, and you will 
find that its City article of July 20, 1861, establishes 
the fact that Repudiation is the distinctive badge 
neither of North nor South, but that the balance 
heavily inclines to the Northern scale in the matter of 
foreign indebtedness. It also uncovers the cc cat in 
the meal-tub" of these many missions, of which yours 
is the last and the least, namely, the hope through 
John Bull's sympathies to unbutton his breeches' 
pockets, — a meritorious but unpromising undertaking. 

Thus growled the Thunderer in 1861 : — 

cc As regards the South, Mississippi presents un- 
" questionably the most flagrant case. Next comes 
<c Arkansas, which in the openness of its bad faith 
cc has been a steady imitator of Mississippi ; and 
<c lastly we have Florida, which has always contrived 
<c to avoid a direct avowal of repudiation by resorting 
<c instead to a quibble of constitutional law. The 
cc debt of Florida was contracted when she was a 
Cf c Territory,' and the plea is that for debts so con- 
sc tracted the Federal Government are liable. The 
<c Federal Government take the opposite view, and 
<c the result is that between them the creditor gets 
" nothing. Turning to the North, the only State 
cc whose conduct in any degree rivals that of Missis- 
<c sippi is Michigan. In this case, the repudiation is 
cc direct and unblushing, and is rather aggravated by 
cc the fact that, as there is a portion of debt which she 
<c has not repudiated, and on which she pays divi- 
cc dends, the Governor, in his annual message, gene- 
<c rally introduces a flourish to the effect that, with 
<c the honour by which she has ever been distinguished, 



i7 

<c the State continues to provide duly for all her 
cc public obligations. Pennsylvania has never, in the 
<c general sense, been a repudiator, but her financial 
<c character suffers from a wound which derives its 
" worst features from its smallness. She issued bonds 
<c for arrears of dividends at a full rate of interest, 
<f and when these fell due with an accumulation 
<c of such interest, refused to pay them unless the 
<c holders would accept a lower rate. It is also to be 
cc mentioned that, although the State is under no 
" other delinquency, the municipality of Pittsburgh 
cc — one of her chief towns, the Birmingham of 
Cf America — has very recently refused to pay a large 
cc amount of railway bonds issued on her guarantee, 
<c and, with the support of the populace, have defied 
cc even the mandates of the Supreme Court. The 
<c next and last State is Indiana. This State, after 
" a tedious default, offered to pay dividends upon 
cc half her debt, if her creditors would take the un- 
<c finished State Canal in payment for the other half, 
<c advancing at the same time sufficient for its com- 
Cl pletion. The value of the canal was considerable, 
ct because it took all the central traffic of the State, 
<c and was protected by a charter which it was agreed 
<c should be upheld against competing lines, either of 
" canal or railway. The creditors accepted the terms 
cc and laid out the required sum, and instantly upon 
<c this being done, the State authorities removed all 
<c protection, passed a law enabling the construction 
<c of opposition lines actually along its banks, and 
<c thus rendered the property entirely worthless. 
cc These are uncoloured facts which cannot be contra- 
<c dieted, and capitalists must form their own conclu- 
" sions from them. But it will be said they do not 
cc bear upon the Federal Government, whose engage- 
<f ments, with the exception of the paper issues during 



i8 

cc the revolutionary war, have always been fulfilled. 
cc That is a point, however, for each individual to de- 
u termine, according to his fancy as to whether a 
cc certain proportion of unsound States among a 
" limited Federation is to be reckoned as an element 
(f of danger. We must also bear in mind that it is 
(c not our place to decide which is the real offender 
Cf with regard to the Florida debt — the individual 
fc State or the Federal Government. Finally, it must 
cc be remarked that the aggregate population of such of 
cc the Northern States as may have been compromised 
c< by default is 5,000,000, and that of the Southern only 
cc 8cc,ooo. Under these circumstances, it would seem 
cc there is not much to encourage our capitalists to inter- 
cc fere by supplying means to either side ; while in a 
cf political sense, it is certain that any such movement 
cc would injure our future good relations, since we 
<c should have a strong prospect that on the termina- 
cc tion of the contest, either by force or compromise, 
<f the re-united friends would join to attribute the 
cf greater part of the miseries they had inflicted on 
cc each other to the British gold maliciously supplied 
" by our aristocracy for the very purpose of giving 
cc intensity to the contest and destroying free insti- 
cc tutions." 

And in even yet a deeper bass has it growled to the 
same effect in 1863. 

The Sampson of the Times having thus dragged 
down the pillars of the temple of American credit, 
built up so carefully by yourself and Mr. Chase, you 
must see that the effusion of what that impudent 
fellow, Jeff. Davis, calls " crocodile tears," over the 
wickedness of Southern defaulters, will only be a waste 
of water. 



19 

So do not get maudlin any more on the subject, but 
try soberly to convince John Bull how easily Mr. 
Chase can pay him off any little loan of a few thousand 
millions in cc greenbacks/' their unlimited production 
depending only on a given quantity of paper and 
power presses. 

For as of old, Aaron erected a golden calf for the 
Israelites to worship, so in our happy day has the 
* c Almighty Dollar" (in paper) become the object of 
our idolatry. We remember it is the <c root of all 
evil," gold, which moralists have denounced, not the 
harmless leaves, or <c greenbacks," which now strew 
our paths on Broadway or Pennsylvania avenue. 

So that we can appeal to England for assistance on 
high moral and religious principles, in this as in all 
other matters, sure at least of the sympathy and 
support of the great man who now governs the 
realm, our own gentle Johnny R., who has out- 
lived his early constitutional weaknesses about Habeas 
Corpus and free speech, and now prefers the meetings 
at Bull's Run to those at Runnymede. 

But cc let me resume the debate," as you say in your 
letter, after a digression of eleven pages in length ; for 
I find that in trying to follow you I get as giddy as if 
I were running round after the sails of a windmill. 

Really, Robert, your letter, like a lady's, has the 
pith in the postscript, when you say : 

cc As Jefferson Davis is now at the head of a slave- 
<c holding rebellion, endeavouring to destroy the 



cc government of my country, and is now also engaged 
cc in selling worthless Confederate bonds in this market, 
<c I have deemed it my duty to make this publication. 
(Signed) cc R. J. Walker." 

When first I attempted to read your letter, I fell 
asleep at the 37th page, and came near losing all the 
spicy part. I could not comprehend why you were 
wasting so many words to prove an alibi for yourself 
in the Mississippi matter, and what Jeff. Davis, Repu- 
diation, and Slavery had got to do with it, more than 
twenty years afterwards. I thought of Gil Bias and 
the Archbishop's sermons in reading that dull and con- 
fused string of words, which you term cc a narrative of 
cc those transactions." 

But glancing (as is my wont with fictions) at the 
end, to see the plot, the true drift of your labours 
flashed upon me. Turning again to page 40, I found 
you had abandoned your nominal and taken up your 
real theme. Recovering from the asphyxia which 
facts always give you, and thus violently awaking, like 
Bully Bottom, 

" In the Ercles' vein, 
A part to tear a cat in," 

you thus bring down the house : 

" Secession, repudiation and slavery, are the same in principle and had 
the same leaders. Jefferson Davis carried the repudiation banner in 1 849, 
as he now does that of secession and slavery. Secession is a repudiation 
of law, of constitution, of country, of the flag of our forefathers, and 
of the Union purchased by their blood. Driven at home, within a circle 
of fire, which narrows every day, it is crouching before foreign rulers 
and imploring their aid to accomplish the ruin of our country. It 
appeals to their ambition, their avarice, their fears, their hatred of free 



21 



institutions and of constitutional government. It summons them to 
these English shores, it unsheathes the imperial sceptre in the House of 
Commons, denounces the Ministry of England, and dictates the vote of 
Parliament on the most momentous question in the history of the world. 
Why, when these sentiments were uttered, I almost expected to see the 
shades of Burke and Fox, and Pitt and Chatham, and Peel and 
Wellington, rise in the midst and denounce the degenerate bearer of 
such a message. "What ! the British Commons become the supple tools, 
the obsequious minions, the obedient parasites, to do the bidding of a 
foreign master, and tremble when his envoy should stamp his foot and 
wave the imperial banner in the halls of Parliament. From whom was 
this message, and to whom? Was it to the England of Trafalgar and 
the Nile ? Was it to the descendants of the men who conquered at 
Agincourt and Cressy, and changed for ages at Waterloo the destiny of 
the world ? Why, Nelson would speak from his monument, and the 
Iron Duke from his equestrian statue, and forbid the degradation of their 
country. But there stood the Confederate messenger, delivering the 
mandate of a foreign Power to the House of Commons, describing 
England as a crawling reptile, exalting the Government he professed to 
represent, as controlling the Continent, and fearing lest the Imperial Eagle 
alone should swoop down upon his prey. And such language, such 
sentiments ! Was I in Billingsgate, that ancient and illustrious insti- 
tution, so near the House of Parliament ? Why, the whole code of 
morals and of international law was repudiated in a sentence, and our 
demagogues distanced in the race. Did the envoy echo the voice of 
his master, when he announced that the American Union must be dis- 
solved by foreign intervention, because, if reunited it would be too 
strong and bully the world — therefore France and England combined 
must strike us when we are supposed to be weak and divided ? It is not 
the author of such ignoble sentiments, that would lead the banner of 
France, or of England, anywhere, except to humiliation and disgrace. 
c Non talis auxilii, nee defensoribus ipsis' — No, when, England seeks 
leaders, it will not be the sycophants of power, those who worship al- 
ternately democracy and autocracy, who slaver over despotism one 
day with their venom, and the next, 1862 to 1863, with their still more 
loathsome adulation." 

That burst is worthy of our Congress ! 
Bunkum can't beat it ! 

Nothing short of the most fiery British brandy 
could have inspired it. 

d 2 



22 

From the speeches of Cassius Clay and Charles 
Sumner you have borrowed the denunciation, drawing 
on your memory for your metaphors, and on your 
fancy for your facts. 

Your rambles over London have naturally suggested 
those novel apostrophes to Westminster Abbey, the 
Iron Duke, and his brazen brothers at Charing Cross. 
Punch furnished you the hit at cc Roebuck the envoy," 
and native genius did the rest. 

Where there is really so much to admire, I may 
give a friendly hint or two as to what to avoid in the 
rest of the series. 

Why betray your visit to another and more cc fishy" 
locality than those mentioned above, by asking, 

f c Was I in Billingsgate, that ancient and illustrious 
cc institution, so near the House of Parliament ?" 

Why recal the fountain whence your inspiration 
came ? 

And even if you did draw your supply of strong 
expressions from that "well of English underlled," 
where on earth did you get your Latin from ? 

For my Scotch neighbours, friends of old John 
O'Groat, repudiate your attempt at that language, 
cc Non talis auxilii, nee defensoribus ipsis," belonging 
to the vulgar species termed cc canine," and not usually 
employed in the briefs of counsellors of Supreme 
Courts. 

Hence they echo your cry for cc Schools — Schools — 
Schools — common schools — high schools for all," the 



23 

want of which these caustic critics say they detect in 
your composition. 

You have been to the Opera, too, you old Slyboots. 
Do not deny it, for that call on the Iron Duke cc to 
speak from his equestrian statue" is a souvenir of Don 
Giovanni, but not happily put, for you should remem- 
ber the fate that befel the rash invoker, and the place 
in which he finally found himself. 

And why, in the name of common sense, cc repu- 
diate" yourself at the conclusion by painting a portrait 
which no one could fail to recognise by the light of 
your past career. Thus : — 

<c When England seeks leaders, it will not be the 
cc sycophants of power, those who worship alternately 
cc democracy and autocracy, who slaver over despotism 
cc one day with their venom, and the next with their 
£C still more loathsome adulation." 

It is a capital plan you have adopted of asking 
questions and answering them yourself. So you would 
be very successful in that way, were not the facts un- 
happily of such recent occurrence that everybody 
knows your answers to be incorrect ; and your indig- 
nant question — 

cc Why predict that when reunited, and with slavery 
cc extinguished, we would bully the world V (the 
italics are your own) brings out this answer — 

Simply because, even in this hour of the nation's 

agony, with General Lee only fifteen miles from the 

Capitol, with Mr. Lincoln listening to the sound of 

the enemy's cannon, and Rosecranz cooped up in 



Chattanooga by Bragg, Senator Sumner bullies poor 
Lord Russell until he makes feeble apologies at Blair- 
gowrie, — Seward scolds shrilly in despatches too long 
for anybody to read, — all the stump orators threaten 
Cf perfidious Albion" and faithless France with Repub- 
lican vengeance, hugging the Russian bear lustily in 
cordial sympathy, while the cc winter of our discon- 
tent" (Winter Davis to wit), thus discourses in Phila- 
delphia, amid <c wild and prolonged applause," as 
quoted by the Times : — 

cc Winter Davis addressed a great mass 
meeting in Philadelphia lately. The North American 
gives a sketch of his speech, from which we quote as 
follows : — c The attitude we held in the eyes of 
c Europe when the war broke out was shown by the 
c speaker. He drew a picture of the attitude we shall 
c hold when the rebellion is crushed out. When this 
f is settled there is a long account to settle with two 
c great nations of Europe. (Wild and prolonged ap- 
c plause, the audience rising and waving their hats.) 
c The speaker said he never said a word on that sub- 
ject to anybody in this house before; but he knew 
c what he thought, and he guessed what the audience 
c thought. He depicted in graphic terms the perfidy 
c of England and France. These acts will fester and 
c rankle till the day of account. He used to be op- 
c posed to foreign war. He had learnt something in 
c two years. The sin of the Alabama and the invasion 
c of Mexico have awakened this country. Napoleon 
c will be expelled from this continent, and the Bahamas 
c are not to be allowed to remain a nest of pirates. 
c And he gloried in the day when black regiments 
f should march to the halls of the Montezumas, where 



c the men of New York and Pennsylvania marched 
c in days gone by. (Wild and deafening applause.) 
c And if Admiral Dupont should live, he hoped yet 
c to see his bombshells bursting over the dome of St. 
c Paul's, and the ruins of London-bridge tumbling into 
c the stream below.' " 

Nor is this all. The old Lady of Threadneedle- 
street has just been outdone by our cc old Lady" of the 
Treasury at Washington, Madam Chase, who with 
the true feminine instinct, threatens to scratch and pull 
hair. Pitiful Charles Sumner, with all his cc tall talk," 
never could come up to the scratch like this : — 

cc Secretary Chase in a speech delivered in Cincinnati 
cc on Monday last — the evening previous to the elections 
cc in Ohio — justified every act of the Administration, and 
cc believed the rebellion virtually at an end. He declared 
(c that the evidences of strength shown by the Republic 
Cf during the war were sufficient guarantees against inter- 
cc vention ; that certain acts of unfriendliness had some- 
cc times made him feel c as if he should like to take old 
iC c mother England by the hair and give her a good 
cc c shaking.' He was certain that no more pirate ships 
cc would be sent out from England to prey upon Ame- 
<c rican commerce, and that eventually England would 
cc consider it the best policy to pay for all the depreda- 
cc tions of the Alabama and her consorts." 

His political views are thus reported : — 

New York, October i6, Evening. 

cc Everywhere throughout the whole world des- 
cc potism and aristocracy are in sympathy with the 
cc rebellion. Despotism and aristocracy do not like 
cc a great and flourishing republic. The English 



26 

cc aristocracy and the French despotism would natu- 
cc rally like to see this country broken up. Then 
cc there is another ground of sympathy — despotism 
" naturally sympathizes with despotism ; aristocracy 
iC naturally sympathizes with aristocracy ; and the 
£C despotism of the whole world sympathizes with the 
cc aristocracy and the despotism that they expected to 
cc build up in the Southern States. Therefore it is 
<c they have naturally been against us. Tou know 
iC what has been done in England : you know that a 
cc great deal of sympathy has been manufactured for 
cc the South ; but just in proportion as we advanced, 
cc partly through the proclamation, and partly through 
cc the success of our armies, the sympathy has become 
cc less and less available, and just in proportion as we 
cc carry this war on will they think less and less of 
fC interference with us. I am asked now and then 
cc what I think of intervention ; and while I am here 
cc among my own friends in Ohio I can tell you what 
<c I think myself. It is this : if we are weak they 
cc will interfere, but when despotism sees we are strong 
cc it will slink away. (Cheers.) 

" We are showing our strength to tne nations of 
fC the earth. And I think if we simply go on thus 
cc showing our strength there is no danger of inter- 
cc vention. No danger, because it wont pay. 
cc (Cheers.) But of one thing I feel well as- 
cc sured — that England wont send any more pi- 
cc ratical ships to prey upon our commerce. And of 
Cf another thing I feel certain — that when England 
<c looks this matter over calmly, and considers that a 
cc certain ship — the Alabama — was fitted out in a 
" British port, manned by British sailors, and armed 
cc by British guns, and has since been roving ever the 
<c seas, plundering American vessels, without daring 
<c to bring a single prize into port, she will conclude 



27 

cc upon the whole that it is the best to pay American 
cf merchants for all the damage the Alabama has 
cc done. (Great cheers.) 

cc Then we have a sort of a new empire on our 
cc borders, over in Mexico. Well, I am not much 
cc disturbed about that. Empires don't last long in 
cc America. (Cheers.) I don't know how long this 
cc empire, if it is born, will last. (Laughter.) There 
<c was an attempt to make an empire in Mexico awhile 
cc ago, with one Iturbide at its head ; but, if I am not 
<c mistaken, he didn't find it very profitable, or agree- 
<c able to the people in Mexico. I don't know but 
cc this new Austrian emperor will find his bed of roses 
<c there ; but I am inclined to think his roses 
cc will be very few, and the bed very hard. (Laugh- 
cc ter.) I am willing to trust it awhile. I am per- 
cc fectly sure, taking all things into consideration, that 
cc European monarchies will soon think it best to keep 
cc their institutions at home. (Renewed laughter and 
cc applause.) " 

What a picture Punch could make of it ! The 
stern Western virago pulling the hair of little Lord 
Johnny, pitifully pleading to be permitted to cc Rest 
and be thankful'' I hope Mr. Leech wont get hold 
of the idea. 

Turn to the daily issues of the New York papers, 
to the shrieks of the leading Republicans, or even of 
the war Democrats, and you will see, oh, guileless 
Robert, why this prediction of cc bullying the world " 
is made. 

For even in the pulpit, the messengers of cc peace 
on earth and goodwill towards men," have not scrupled 
to bully too. 



28 



Even the apostolic Beecher, so ready to recom- 
mend Sharp's rifles as companions to the Bible, did not 
scruple to say during the Trent affair — 

(Rev. H. W. Beecher, in the Ne<zv York Independent^) 

cc Should the President quietly yield to the present 
" necessity (viz., the delivering up of Messrs. Mason 
" and Slidell), as the lesser of two evils, and bide our 
cc time with England r , there will be a sense of wrong, of 
<c national humiliation so profound, and a horror of 
"the unfeeling selfishness of the English Government 
cc in the great emergency of our affairs, such as will 
cc inevitably break out by and by in flames , and which 
cc will only be extinguished by a deluge of blood ! We 
" are not living the whole of our life to-day ; there is a 
cc future to the United States in which the Nation will 
" right any injustice of the present hour." 

The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at a Meeting held 

in New York at the time when the Confederate envoys, 

Messrs. Slidell and Mason, had been surrendered by 

President Lincoln to the British Government, from 

whose vessel (the royal mail steamer Trent) they were 

taken, said — 

cc That the best blood of England must flow for 
" the outrage England had perpetrated upon America." 

So if from pulpit, press, and stump, the same note 
is heard, how can ignorant Englishmen understand that 
it all means love, friendship, and fraternity ? 

Then you ask the question : 

cc Who struck down Charles Sumner, the senator of 
£C Massachussetts, the eminent scholar and orator, on 
iC the floor of the Senate, for denouncing the horrors 
iC of slavery ? A South Carolina Member of Congress, 
" whilst all slavedom approved the deed." 



Robert ! your memory serves you badly in this 
matter of Sumner. The cc eminent scholar and orator *' 
was chastised by Brooks on the floor of the Senate, 
because he could not be caught anywhere else, after a 
week's watching ; the senator, like Chevy Slyme, hav- 
ing the peculiarity of being cc always round the corner,' ' 
when sought for a hostile purpose. But the Senate 
was not in session at the time, nor was the place any 
more sacred than any other floor. Nor was he beaten 
like a dog (and without even a dog's show of resis- 
tance), by a man vastly inferior to himself in size and 
strength, on whom the hand of consumption had set 
its seal, and of his own age, because he (C denounced 
the horrors of slavery." He was punished for a 
scurrilous personal assault on a venerable man, Senator 
Butler of South Carolina, whose infirmities he had ridi- 
culed in debate, and who stood almost in a father's place 
to Brooks, whose uncle he was. And you, Robert, with 
every man of the North who felt like a gentleman, 
then approved the deed, though they lamented its in- 
discretion, as to time and place. 

This same man, Sumner, who fled shrieking from 
his country at tht sight of a few drops of his own 
blood, without the courage to defend himself, has 
since been the loudest shrieker for Southern extermi- 
nation ; hounding on his countrymen to massacres, 
but always keeping at a safe distance from danger. 

No, Robert, cc loyal " as we are, we cannot take 
Charles Sumner as a model of Northern, manhood ! 



3° 

Judge Butler, and his avenger Brooks, have both 
been in their graves for many years. Let their ashes 
rest. But let Charles Sumner go into the battle field, 
if he would not have us deem him a craven <c bully," 
prodigal of other men's lives, but over-careful of his 
own. 

Your next question about Kansas is equally unfor- 
tunate. 

cc Who endeavoured to force slavery on Kansas by 
murder and rapine, and the forgery of a consti- 



cc 

cc tution ? 



Why, where is your memory, that you forget your 
own despatches from Kansas, when Governor, and 
your denunciation of the abolition faction there ? 

Naturally, however, you feel sore about the very 
short term of your service there, and the reasons which 
abbreviated it. 

Your third question betrays a total loss of memory. 

cc Who repealed the Missouri compromise, in order 
cc to force slavery upon all the territories of the United 
" States ?" 

Who ? why, Robert, have you forgotten who did 

it ? Your great leader and bosom friend, Stephen A. 

Douglas, who forced it on the reluctant Southerners, 

and by so doing, lost their support in the ensuing 

canvas for President ; as nobody ought to know better 

than yourself. 

<c 4thly. Who are now endeavouring to dissolve the 
cc Union and force slavery on the whole of this wide 
<c domain ?" 



3* 

Why, what wide domain is the man talking about ? 
The South ? Slavery exists there already, and even 
good Mr. Lincoln promises to let it stay there, if the 
South will come back to the cc Union as it was." The 
North ? But nobody in the South wants to annex the 
North. The v/hole bloody struggle is to ensure a 
perpetual severance. 

Why, therefore, rave so incoherently ? People will 
discover that you are talking arrant nonsense, which 
is even worse than indulging in fiction. 

But you go on from worse to worst when you talk 
in this way. 

cc Who conspired to assassinate the American Presi- 
" dent on his way to Washington P Who murdered in 
<c Baltimore the men of Massachusetts on their way to 
<c the defence of the Capitol of the Union ? Who com- 
<c menced the conflict by firing upon the starving gar- 
" rison of Sumter, and striking down the banner of the 
Cf Union which floated over its walls ? Who, immedi- 
<c ately thereafter, announced their resolution to capture 
<c Washington, seized the National arms, and forts, and 
cc dockyards, and vessels, and arsenals, and mints, and 
* c treasure, and opened the war upon the Federal Go- 
cc vernment ? There is a plain answer to all these ques- 
" tions." 

There is a plain answer to all these questions, as 
you truly say ; but you do not give it, although you 
quote Sumner's balderdash and seek to fasten it on 

cc The Lords of the TVhip and the Chain and the 
<c Branding iron/' one of whom you were, in your 
calida inventus (to save you trouble, this means your 



32 

hot youth), and for many years of your ripe manhood, 
Oh, man of many homes, and many principles ! 

Did you, really now, amuse the children in your 
Mississippi home, with the toys you have named ? and 
why, among the numerous titles affixed to your letters 
did you not add this too : 

" Lord of the Whip and the Chain, and the Brand- 
ing Iron ?" 

What did you do with those insignia of the order 

when you left Mississippi ? Did you send them to 

your friend Butler to use upon the rebel white women 

at whom he levelled his famous (or as Lord Palmer- 

ston, with true British prejudice, calls it, cc infamous") 

proclamation, ordering cc that hereafter, when any 
female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult 
or show contempt for any officer, or private of the 
United States, she shall be regarded and held liable 
to be treated as a woman of the town flying her 



cc 



cc 



The next question is really malicious. You must 

have your joke even at poor Mr. Lincoln's expense, 

but you should recollect that it is bad to joke as well 

as to argue with cc the master of legions." 

cc Who conspired to assassinate the American Presi- 
cc dent on his way to Washington ?" 

Echo answers cc Who !" for those assassins, as every- 
body knows, were of the family of FalstarTs, cc men 
in buckram," cousins of those cc rogues in Kendall 
Green." If President Lincoln, frightened at his own 
shadow, stole into Washington at midnight, disguised 



33 

m that " Scotch cap and cloak/' why should you so 
wickedly remind us of it ? 

As to " the murdering " at Baltimore, I always 
thought that the men of Massachussetts murdered the 
Marylanders, who were only defending their own soil 
from an armed invasion made in time of peace. 

At that time there was not a single Southern soldier 
north of South Carolina, and no one dreamed of 
cc capturing Washington/' for no one imagined there 
would be war. 

As to who commenced this cruel war, there can 
now be as little doubt as to who now continue it, 
the South from the first only having asked to be 
<c kt alone." 

Let us cc tell the truth and shame the devil," 
Robert. The cc bullying " of England never has 
come from the Southern but from the Northern states- 
men, as our past history shows. When in 1841 war 
was threatened in the famous Caroline case, it was 
Governor Seward, of New York, now Secretary of 
State, who ff blustered," and encouraged secret organi- 
sations to invade Canada, and the Southern President, 
John Tyler, of Virginia, supported by Southern 
statesmen, had to stop it by proclamation. 

In the Maine boundary and Oregon disputes, the 
cc bullies " were the Northern, the peacemaking the 
Southern men. The great Southern leader, as poten- 
tial in his section as Lord Palmerston is in England, 
raised his powerful voice for- peace with England on 



34 

both these occasions, in 1842 and in 1846, in speeches 
of great force and fervour ; ably seconded on the last 
occasion in the House of Representatives by Wm. L. 
Yancey, late Commissioner to England : and Jefferson 
Davis, then a new member, made almost his maiden 
speech on the same side. On February 6, 1846, 
he said : 

Cf We have even been told that one of the advan- 
<c tages to result from war will be emancipation from 
cc the manufactures of Manchester and Birmingham. 
<c I hope. Sir, the day is far distant when measures of 
<c peace or war will be prompted by sectional or class 
cc interests." 

cc Mr. Chairman, it has been asserted that the 
cc people demand action, and we must advance. Sir, 
cc may the day never come when there will be so little 
xc of public virtue and patriotic devotion among the 
cc representatives of the people that any demagogue 
cc who chooses to make violent and unfounded appeals 
cc to raise a war clamour in the country will be allowed, 
<c unopposed, to mislead the people as to the true 
<c questions at issue, and to rule their representatives 
" through their love of place and political timidity I" 

It is curious soldiers never want war : only civilians 
like Cass and Sumner are fond of it ! 

Leading the war party in the opposition, was the 
venerable father of our present minister, Mr. Adams, 
who, in 1846, went so far as to threaten England 
with the loss of Ireland, in the following memorable 
words : 

He had the Holy Scripture read by the Clerk of 
the House of Representatives, to prove that God had 



3b 

given the heathen as an inheritance to his chosen 
people, and the uttermost part of the earth as a pos- 
session, claiming Oregon by this title for the United 
States, adding : 

cc And now, Sir, the Government of Great Britain 
" — the nation of Great Britain — holds the 
(C island of Ireland by no other title. That is, no 
cc other, unless by conquest (for it has been in a con- 
cc tinued state of rebellion ever since), and Great 
cc Britain has been obliged to conquer it half a dozen 
cc times since ; and now the question is, whether Ire- 
cc land shall ever become an independent kingdom. 
" If we come to a war with Great Britain, she will find 
cc enough to do to maintain that island." 

He led the Northern Whigs, and the leaders of the 
Northern Democrats blustered as loudly as he. Gene- 
ral Lewis Cass thus taunted the Senator from South 
Carolina, Mr. Calhoun, with his dread of a war with 
England : 

cc Let us have no red lines on the map of Oregon, 
(C and if war comes, be it so. * * * England might 
cc as well attempt to blow up the rock of Gibraltar 
cc with a squib as to attempt to subdue us. Why 
cc the honourable Senator from South Carolina fixesr. 
£f upon ten years for the duration of the war, I know 
iC not ; long before the expiration of that period, if 
cc we are not utterly unworthy of our name and our 
cc birthright, we should sweep the British power from 
" the Continent of North America." 

The last difficulty between the two countries, before 

the late revolution, on the San Juan question, was 

raised by the Northern politicians and settled by a 

Southern Administration. 

E 



3« 

I am sorry to contradict you, my friend, but 
cc the truth of history " must be preserved, or what 
will become of all our reputations ? 

During the continuance of this war, too, the 
Southern Government and people have kept grimly 
silent about British neutrality, as preached and prac- 
tised by Earl Russell ; while our Northern brethren 
have howled and yelled like a pack of war wolves, 
and obtain many thousands of Irish recruits by the 
promise of making war on England when the little 
affair of Cf crushing the rebellion " had been happily 
concluded. 

Nay, so strong is the force of habit, that even you 

cannot refrain from cc bullying" a little yourself at the 

very close of this indignant contradiction. 

cc Is war really desired between the two countries, 
cc or is it supposed that we will yield to foreign inter- 
cc vention without a struggle ? No, the North will 
f c rise as one man, and thousands even from the South 
cc will join them. The country will become a camp, 
cc and the ocean will swarm with our privateers." 

Then you grow pious : — 

<c The Almighty can never prosper such a war 
" upon us." 

And then you threaten to cc whip Creation," France 

included : — 

<c If the views of a foreign Power have been truly 
cc represented in Parliament, and such an aggression 
cc upon us is contemplated, let him beware, for in 
cc such a contest, the political pyramid resting upon 
cc its apex, the power of one man is much more likely 



37 

<c to fall, than that which reposes on the broad basis 
cf of the will of the people." 

How can you be so indiscreet as to give confirma- 
tion to the very accusation you were trying to dis- 
prove ? The cc Pogram defiance" pales before yours, 
and the slumbers of Napoleon will be troubled hence- 
forth. 

But you recover yourself when you get on the safe 
ground of slavery. That is a theme which always 
takes with the British public, although the great and 
shining lights of English emancipation — the Shaftes- 
burys, and Broughams, and Buxtons — turn the cold 
shoulder on Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward's philan- 
thropic plans for not only abolishing Slavery and the 
Slave, but the Master too, in imitation of those ancient 
models of Rome, 

u Who made a solitude, 

And called it peace." 

If Mr. Chase in his late speech be right, that 

matter now is settled ; and Europe must think so, for 

that extraordinary financier thus disposes of it, as he 

does of his greenbacks, by main strength — 

cc Either" he says, cc the Proclamation was a great 
cc monstrous sham and an imposition in the face of the 
<c world , or else that Proclamation was an effectual 
cc thing, and there are no slaves to-day in the rebel 
" States" 

Still, it is good exercise to kick the corpse. What 

though Mr. Lincoln, in his first Message to Congress 

in March, 1861, declared : — 

E 2, 



3 8 

cc I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to in- 
<c terfere with the institution of Slavery in the States 
<c where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to 
" do so, and I have no inclination to do so." 

And repeated it eighteen months afterwards — 

cc I would save the Union : I would save it in the 
cc shortest way. If there be those who would not 
<c save the Union, unless they could save slavery, I 
cc do not agree with them. If there are those who 
<c would not save the Union unless they could at the 
cc same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 
" My paramount object in the struggle is to save the 
" Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery." 

And he then goes on to say that if slavery were 
abolished, the coloured population must leave the 
country. 

What though he, in his Message to Congress, 
Dec. i, 1862, acknowledged the right of <c property 
in man," in these words — 

" The liberation of slaves is the destruction of pro- 
cc perty — property aca^iired by descent or purchase, 
cc the same as any other property. It is no less true 
cc for having been often said, that the people of the 
cc South are no more responsible for the original in- 
" troduction of this property than the people of the 
cc North ; and when it is remembered how unhesi- 
<c tatingly we use — all of us use — cotton and sugar, 
" and share the profits of dealing in them, it may not 
cc be quite safe to say that the South has been more 
cc responsible than the North for its continuance" 

Did not our facetious President, much amused by 
the proposal made him by a deputation of Abolitionists, 



39 

that he should decree emancipation to all the slaves, 
humorously compare it to the " Pope's Bull against 
the Comet ?" 

What though Mr. Seward, in his despatch to Mr. 
Adams in February, 1862, denounced the British idea 
of the Government emancipating the slaves, as in- 
human even to think of; using this strong language : 

cc Does France or does Great Britain want to see a 
<c Social Revolution , with all its horrors y like the Slave 
" Revolution in San Domingo ? Are these Powers 
" sure that the country or the world is ripe for such 
cc a revolution, so that it must certainly be successful ? 
cc What if, in inaugurating such a revolution, Slavery, 
cc protesting against its inhumanity and ferocity, 
cc should prove the victor !" 

What of all this, I say ? Was not the " Bull 
against the Comet " launched by Mr. Lincoln with all 
the happy effects he predicted ? 

Has not Mr. Seward sung his palinode, and been 
taken to the embraces of Brother Beecher ? So you 
strike the right chord, when you put on the cc Sable 
Stole" of Sam Slick's story, and snort over slavery 
thus : 

<c It is the Lords of the whip and the chain and the 
<c branding-iron who are our bullies ; who insist upon 
xc forced labour, and repudiate all compensation to the 
cc toiling millions of slaves — who repudiate, among 
"slaves, the marital and parental relation, and class 
cc them by law as chattels — who forbid emancipation — 
cc who make it a crime to teach slaves to read or write 
<c — ay, even the Bible — who keep open the interstate 



4° 

cc slave-trade — (more horrible than the African, making 
cc Virginia a human stock farm,) tearing husband from 
cc wife, and parents from children — founding a Govern- 
<c ment boldly announcing the doctrine of property in 
" man, based avowedly on the divinity, extension, and 
" perpetuity of slavery — these are our bullies, and when 
cc they are overthrown, we shall commence a new career 
cc of peaceful progress and advanced civilization." 

"Hit them again ! they have no friends ! huzza !" 
As our immortal poet, Hosea Biglow sings : 

" Call me Old Timber-toes, 

That's what our people likes ; 
Something combining moral truths, 

With phrases sich as strikes." 

Fred Douglass, the representative cc unbleached 
American " could not beat that flight of yours. 

But, cc entre nous, " will it stand sifting as to its 
facts ? These pestilent cc Secesh " over here have 
a way of giving proofs about that subject, which are 
very hard to get over, and unimaginative John Bull 
makes no allowance for flights of fancy. He calls them 
lies — an ugly name — and does not believe in the merits 
of the cause which needs such supports — stupid fellow 
that he is ! 

Even cc Hist or tens, " that great Times'-server, who is 
robbing you of your laurels, and doing your work for 
you, both in the vituperative and the imaginative line, 
has just butted his head so hard against Mr. Laird's new 
rams, as to have entirely disabled himself in public esti- 
mation ; and all because having exhausted all his law and 



4i 

his facts, he had recourse to his fancy, and flatly contra- 
dicted last week what he himself wrote last month. 

So I must tell you that after triumphantly reading 
your eloquent burst above quoted to one of these 
Secesh fellows,, whom I met on the lakes, he took your 
statements to pieces in a way that surprised me ; and I 
consider it a friendly act to tell you what he said, which 
in substance was as follows : 

cc Mrs. Stowe had some apology for what she wrote, 
Sir! 

cc Firstly, she was a Yankee woman writing a sen- 
cc sation romance that would sell ; and secondly, she 
cc really knew very little of the subject she wrote about, 
cc and even she had the grace to make the villain of 
cc c Uncle Tom,' the Overseer Legree, a Yankee ! 
fc knowing no Southern-born man ever treated slaves 
cc so cruelly as the c descendants of the Puritans' hahitu- 
cc ally do when domiciled at the South. 

cc But Robert J. Walker has not the same excuse, 
cc Sir. He lived for twenty years in Mississippi, in the 
cc midst of a Slave population, and like Jeshurun's 
cc Ass, c waxed fat and kicked' — and vindicated c the 
cc institution' with voice and pen, and showed the 
cc folly and cruelty of the Abolitionists who sought to 
cc interrupt the relation existing between master and 
cc slave. 

cc Therefore let us see if he tells the truth, Sir, in 
cc his bill of indictment against the South. 

cc Mr. Walker knows that c the whip, the chain and 
cc the branding-iron,' are mere figures of rhetoric — 
cc the first being used more rarely upon Slaves than upon 
cf British Soldiers and American Seamen — the second 
iC never except upon criminals white and black in- 
(c differently ; and the c branding-iron' being a pure 
£C invention of Sensation-mongers. 



42 

<K He Knows, moreover, that the toiling millions 
<c of slaves get better c compensation ' in food, 
cc clothing, attendance (in old age and illness as 
Cf well as in health), than do the c toiling millions ' of 
Cf white men in Europe, who depend on daily labour, 
cc for daily bread — and he has -proved it in his Texas 
Cf letter, written in 1844 at great length, and with great 
cc detail. 

"Asa lawyer, no one knows better the code of laws 
cc which protect the slave in life and limb against any 
cc cruelty from the master — that his rights under that 
cc code are clearly set forth — and that public opinion, 
cc stronger than any law — enforces that code under the 
xc penalty of social degradation, as well as legal punish- 
cc ment. He knows (unless he forgets his law as he 
<c does his Latin) that they are not c classed as chattels,' 
cc but as persons, by the laws of all the Southern States, 
<c and that the white man who murders a black man 
" will be hung more surely than though he murdered 
cc a white one. 

<c Mr. Walker knows, or ought to know, that ac- 
* c cording to the United States Census returns no less 
<c than 20,000 slaves are recorded as having received 
cc their freedom in the decade ending in i860 ; there- 
<c fore f emancipation ' was not c forbidden by the 
cc entire South.' 

iC He knows, or ought to know, the falsity of his 
<c accusation, applied to the whole South, — c who make 
<c it a crime to write or read — ay, even the Bible ; ' 
cc for it is safe to assert that many slaves in Mis- 
cc sissippi, including his own, are, or were more 
tc familiar with that book, ay, and follow its teach- 
" ings better, than the c honourable ' ex-senator him- 
(C self. 

(c He knows that Virginia never was c a human 
C( stock-farm,' and that the stale slander of c slave- 



43 

cc c breeding ' revived against that noble Mother of 
Cf Washington, is utterly without foundation ; as the 
cc census proves that the increase in the slave popula- 
<f tion is only i per cent, per annum, while in the 
<c Gulf States, v/here the climate is more congenial to 
cc the African race, the increase is 3 per cent, per 
Cf annum, and the demand for labour in Virginia 
cc always has been greater than the supply. 

tc He knows, or ought to know, that c tearing hus- 
fC c band from wife — parent from child,' is forbidden 
<f by the laws of some, and frowned down by the public 
c ' feeling of all the States, except where such division 
" is desired by the parties themselves — and how many 
cf white families are there, all of whose members live 
cc together after attaining puberty ! 

cc He knows there is no such thing as the c inter- 
cc c state Slave trade' (more horrible than the African) 
cc which exists only in his vivid imagination. For in 
cc all the Southern States there are laws prohibiting 
cc the introduction of negroes from other States, unac- 
cc companied by their masters ; and so far from there 
<c being the necessity existing, one of the great appre- 
cc hensions of timid slaveholders, like Mr. Walker, was 
cc that the natural increase of blacks was so great as to 
cc render the acquisition of Texas necessary as an out- 
" let for the superabundant population. And it is a 
cc striking proof of the different treatment the black 
" race have received in the Southern States and in 
CQ other countries, that they have increased from 
" 700,000 in 1790, to near 4,000,000 in i860. 

<c c The whip, the chain, and the branding-iron/ 
" could not have been very severely employed to 
cc produce this result. 

cc And finally, Sir, neither loss of memory nor 
cc want of information can excuse Robert J. Walker 
cc for accusing the seceders of founding a Government 



44 

cc boldly announcing the right of property in man, 
cc based professedly on the divinity, extension, and 
" perpetuity of slavery. 

cc For President Lincoln himself has asserted that 
cc he found that right existing under the Union which 
<c he desired to perpetuate ; and has only decreed the 
cc abolition of slavery as a punishment for c disloyalty/ 
<c the slaves in the c loyal 7 States never having been 
cc freed by him, even by a c Pope's Bull.' 

cc And no one can doubt that, from the beginning 
cc of this war up to the present moment, the Black 
cc Republican party would cheerfully give the seceding 
cc States of the Southern Confederacy almost any ad- 
cc ditional guarantees for the perpetuity and protection 
cc of slavery, if they only would consent to come back 
cc into that c glorious Union,' which gave the North, 
cc with its numerical majority, such c glorious' oppor- 
<c tunities of plundering the South, under the forms 
cc of legislation. As to the Southern Confederacy 
cc being founded on slavery, because that form of 
cc labour exists there, as it has existed always, before 
cc and since the Union, it is an absurdity which needs 
u no contradiction. One significant fact in relation to 
cc this subject Mr. Walker prudently does not allude 
cc to, viz., that as the Southern States were the first 
cc to insist upon the abolition of the slave-trade, and 
cc forced that law down in spite of the opposition of 
cc the Northern States, which, to this day, carry it on 
cc through their enterprising captains and shipowners, 
cc from Boston and other Northern ports ; so in 
cc the Constitution of the Confederate States there 
cc is a special prohibition of the slave-trade by name, 
fc making it penal ; while the old Constitution, 
cc which the North have adhered to, contains no suck 
cc provision. So much, Sir, for Mr. Walker's truth- 
" fulness in his tirade against us." 



45 

These are the arguments of my cc secesh " ac- 
quaintance, and as he looked something like a volcano 
in breeches, I thought it most convenient not to con- 
tradict him. Can you, Robert ? or are those uncom- 
fortable facts of his susceptible of proof? If so, 
cc the least said the soonest mended." 

You may think it unkind of me to tell these 
things to you ; but if one's particular friends do not 
repeat disagreeable remarks, who will take the trouble 
to do so ? Besides, after all you have gone through, 
your cuticle must be as tough as the hide of an 
alligator. 

But really, this letter of mine is growing as 
lengthy (though I hope not so prosy) as one of Mr. 
Seward's cc ninety-day " notes to the Ministers abroad 
■ — or one of Historicus 1 Penelope-webs. So I must 
come to my cc seventhly and lastly." 

I find this all the more easy in consequence of two 
things, ist. Because on perusing your Letter, No. 
II., on "Jefferson Davis, Repudiation, Seces- 
sion, &c." I discover that it is only a re-hash of your 
Letter, No. I. And 2ndly, Mr. Chase has just 
fully explained the secret of his financial policy in 
two paragraphs of his late speech at Indianapolis. 

Your pamphlet, No. III., entitled, cf American 
Finances and Resources," and professing to an- 
swer "the question so often asked me (Walker) here 
and on the continent" — How has your Secretary of 
the Treasury (Mr. Chase) so marvellously sustained 



4 6 

American credit during this rebellion, and when will 
your finances collapse ?" has been superseded by 
the utterances of that " marvellous " man himself. 

It is unsatisfactory to observe, however, that 
neither Mr. Chase nor yourself touch on the last, and, 
to European eyes, the most important clause of the 
interrogatory, propounded by those "doubting 
Thomases" abroad, viz. : 

Cf And when will your Finances Collapse ?" 

You both observe a discreet reserve on this delicate 
if not improper question. 

But I must be permitted to say that neither your 
" Letter on American Credit," nor Mr. Chase's re- 
marks on the same, will tend to increase your stock 
of that article in Europe. For they remember the 
great experiment made in Finance years ago, known 
as "Law's bubble," which was more gaudy in colour, 
and more grand in its proportions, than Mr. Chase's, 
and with which these narrow-minded business men 
will compare it. 

The confiding Chase has thus promulgated his 

panacea to his constituents on the 12th inst., while 

making stump speeches in the West, thus reported by 

telegraph : 

cc Mr. Chase continues his tour in the West. In a 
Cf speech at Indianopolis, Indiana, he recounted his 
cc experience as Secretary of the Treasury. He stated 
cc that his whole financial scheme was a uniform cur- 
" rency, and the establishment of national banks 
" seemed to him, as it must have done to the people 






47 

" from the outset, to be the only true and successful 
cc method of providing the whole system, as plain as 
cc the alphabet, and that common sense and courage 
cc were its Alpha and Omega." 

But the telegraph adds an additional item, which 

explains another feature of Mr. Chase's financiering, 

which he did not think it worth while to explain : 

cc Postscript. — Mr. Chase's brokers have been 
cc operating in the market this morning to bring 
cc down the premium on gold. There has been a 
<c fall of 4 per cent, since yesterday afternoon ; at 
cc half-past one it stood at 48 ; within the last half 
cc hour there has been a reaction, and it has recovered 
cc to 49i." 

The London Times, indignant that we can be rich 
without British gold, ridicules our great man in an 
editorial which will amuse him. 

" Let ordinary mortals toil and slave, let Old World financiers rack 
their brains for fresh taxes, fresh loans, or further economies; Mr. 
Chase has found the philosopher's stone — he has got an uniform, per- 
manent, and substantial currency, which costs nothing and pays for 
everything, and he need trouble his head with none of these Old World 
embarrassments. 

" We had certainly thought that there was nothing new in all this ; we 
had thought that the art of issuing inconvertible paper, and declaring it 
a legal tender, had come into existence a little before the art of declaring 
national bankruptcies — nay, we had even gone so far as to speculate on 
some occult connection between the two. We now learn that we were 
mistaken, and Mr. Chase is good enough to give us a popular ex- 
planation of the steps whieh have led him to a discovery destined to 
relieve mankind from the primitive curse, and to make them rich without 
inflicting on them the slightest trouble or anxiety. The first thing that 
struck Mr. Chase was a declaration of our own, that no money would 
be advanced in this country to the Northern States by English capitalists. 
Reasoning deeply on this announcement, he came to the conclusion that 
as we would not lend he would not borrow from us ; at any rate, till 
we came to ask him to do so — a qualification which we venture to think 



48 

does not much diminish the absolute nature of the proposition. Having 
established this point of departure, this ingenious man began by bor- 
rowing all the gold he could get in his own country and paying it away 
for war expenses. In the course of this process his mind was struck by 
the remarkable fact that the gold did not come back to him as fast as 
he paid it away — an observation which we apprehend has been already 
made by every person who has entered upon a large expenditure of bor- 
rowed money and has not credit to borrow any more. This was exactly 
the state in which Mr. Chase found himself. Capitalists became ex- 
orbitant in their demands, and Mr. Chase came to the conclusion that 
instead of borrowing other people's notes he had better issue his own. 
As this was, however, only another form of borrowing, and as he had, 
as he tells us, previously exhausted his credit, people who were not 
willing to become creditors of the Government, which was the case 
with many bankers, were unwilling to receive these notes in payment. 
Then the beautiful idea suggested itself to the mind of Mr. Chase of 
compelling them to take them in payment — that is, of making them 
legal tender. That, he triumphantly says, was the next step. You 
would have done exactly, he says, as he did. It is an affair of common 
sense and courage. No doubt any debtor whose credit is exhausted, 
whose bills nobody will take except at a ruinous discount, would, if he 
could, make them a legal tender. Mr. Chase could, and did, and 
therein lies his unapproachable superiority over the private debtor, who, 
when he cannot pay, has no resource but an ignominious declaration of 
insolvency.'' 

People over here, in Scotland, shake their heads over 
Mr. Chase's explanation, and say, "Why, there is 
<c nothing new in all this. It is only John Law's 
<c scheme over again, and destined to a more speedy 
cc collapse, for Law's paper never was depreciated 
<c until his bubble broke." But these sagacious Scotch- 
men (comparing dates) find that on the very day 
(12th Oct.) Mr. Chase boasted of his success, ex- 
change on England in New York was one hundred 
and seventy one, and gold at 156^, showing a deprecia- 
tion to that extent in the value of Mr. Chase's cc green 
" back " offspring. 



49 

Dunshunner tells me this state of things is so en- 
couraging to debtors, that he thinks seriously of re- 
turning home, and indulging in the unusual luxury 
of paying his old debts. He can now do it so cheaply. 
May this delightful state of the currency and of ex- 
change not be bad, however, for the creditors ? It 
has struck me it possibly might be. And you know 
he will have his joke, even at a friend's expense ; the 
rogue says that you are a great manager as well as 
Mr. Chase, for, figuratively speaking, you owe the 
people of Mississippi a great deal, and it certainly is a 
new version of 

CC A New Way to Pay Old Debts," 

which you have been bringing out lately on the British 
boards, for their benefit. 

And apropos to finance and financiers, I find your 
short letter, No. 2, like the scorpion, has a sting in 
the tail. For in the twelfth and last page, you wind 
up thus : — 

" And what is to be thought of the 'faith ' of a 
* c so-called Government, which has chosen this re- 
" pudiator as their chief, and what of the value of the 
" Confederate bonds now issued by him ? Why, the 
cc legal tender notes of the so-called Confederate Go- 
cc vernment, fundable in a stock bearing eight per cent. 
" interest, is now worth in gold at their own capital 
" of Richmond, less than ten cents on the dollar (2s. 
<c on the £), whilst in two-thirds of their territory 
<c such notes are utterly worthless ; and it is treason 
<c for any citizen of the United States, North or 



5° 

cc South, or any alien resident there, to deal in them, 
cc or in Confederate bonds, or in the cotton pledged 
cc for their payment. No form of Confederate bonds, 
cc or notes, or stock, will ever be recognised by the 
cc Government of the United States, and the cotton 
" pledged by slaveholding traitors for the payment of 
" the Confederate bonds is all forfeited for treason, and 
cc confiscated to the Federal Government by Act of 
cc Congress. As our armies advance, this cotton is 
cc either burned by the retreating rebel troops, or seized 
cc by our forces, and shipped and sold from time to time 5 
cc for the benefit of the Federal Government. By 
" reference to the census of i860, it will be seen, that 
cc three- fourths of the whole cotton crop was raised in 
" States (now held by the Federal army and navy), 
cc touching the Mississippi and its tributaries, and all the 
cc other ports, are either actually held or blockaded by 
" the Federal forces. The traitor pledge of this cotton 
<c is, then, wholly unavailing ; the bonds are utterly 
" worthless." 

"When I read this statement of yours, it made me 
feel happy, and I went straight over to my Secesh 
acquaintance, who was smoking one of the biggest 
and strongest cigars I ever saw, on the portico of the 
hotel. 

" What do you say to that ?" said I. " Isn't it a 
" facer ? ; ' 

" Old gentleman, 5 ' was the reply, Cf there's not a 
" single statement in it worth this tobacco ash on the 
" end of my cigar, and I'll prove it. Excuse me a 
£C moment, until I get my papers out of my trunk." 

When he came down he had a bundle of old news- 
papers, and read and talked to me an hour at least. 



5 1 

As I did before, I will again give you the substance > 
of what he said. 

" Robert J. Walker, Sir, has been boasting a good 
" deal lately, I hear, as to the effect his letters 
cc and conversations have had in depressing Confede- 
" rate credit. But except his friend Bright, who has 
" quoted him, it is supposed where he alludes to in- 
" formation given him by c a gentleman from Missis- 
" c sippi, well acquainted with the facts of the case,' 
" no one has noticed him or his letters. 

" They, of course, are congenial spirits ; but if any- 
" body else has quoted or been influenced by Mr. 
" Walker, nobody has found it out. The old fable 
" of the c fly on the ox's horn/ applies to Mr. Walker, 
" and the bull does move on in spite of the fly still 
" sitting there. I suppose it never occurred to Mr. 
" Walker that such insignificant events as the sur- 
render of Vicksburg, the repulse of General Lee 
" from Pennsylvania, and the siege of Charleston, 
" could have produced any effect comparable to his 
" c Letters,' which appeared simultaneously with those 
" trifling circumstances. As the stock is going up 
" again, he had better publish some more letters. 

" But how as to his statements which you show 
"me? 

" Even if Jeff. Davis were a repudiator (which he 
" is not, and never has been, in any sense of the term), 
"he having personally been in favour of paying the 
" debt by private subscription of the property holders 
" in Mississippi, what has that to do with the 
" Confederate Loan ? With that loan Jeff. Davis has 
"no more to do than Robert J. Walker. It was 
" negotiated by the Secretary of the Treasury, under 
" authority of an Act of the Congress ; and as to the 

F 



5* 



€€ C 



faith' of that Government, and of that people, 
" nobody doubts it : not even Robert J. Walker. 

" Why, even if the character of the men of the second 
" revolution were different, common sense and policy 
" would teach them the necessity of acting fairly by 
" their creditors, in this their first loan made abroad ; 
" for after the war they will have such extensive trans- 
" actions direct with Europe, as to render mutual con- 
" fidence essential. 

" Mr. Walker's valuation of the Confederate notes 
" of the 8 per cent, stock at Richmond, is a pure 
" fiction. They are at a premium there, and even 
" abroad sales have been effected in them (previous to 
" the Vicksburg panic) at from 65 to 75 cents in the 
" dollar. 

" But the security, is that good ? 

" The following letter from Mr. M c Rae, Confede- 
" rate agent for the Loan in Europe, will show. 
" Responding to the question of an anxious holder, 
" just after the panic, Mr. M c Rae wrote as follows — 
" and he told the truth : — 

Times, 6th August, 1863. 

Burlington Hotel, Cork Street, Aug, 5th. 

Sir, — In reply to the enquiries contained in your note of this morning, 
I have to say, that on the 1st of March last the Government of the 
Confederate States had purchased about 320,000 bales of cotton. The 
purchasing was still going on ; and it is fair to presume that by this time 
the quantity has been increased to at least 500,000 bales. 

This cotton is principally in the States of Georgia, Alabama, North- 
western Louisiana, and Texas, and is stored in the plantations of the 
planters, from whom it was purchased, in sheds or warehouses 300 feet 
from any other buildings, and in all cases the planters have agreed with 
the Government to take the same care of the cotton as if it still belonged 
to them, and to deliver it to the order of the Government when wanted. 
The capture of all our seaports would not endanger the loss of a single 
pound of cotton, as there are no stocks of cotton at any of them, nor 



53 

are there any considerable stocks of cotton at any one place in the interior, 
care having been taken by the Confederates, as well as the State Govern- 
ment, that no cotton should be stored at any point within five miles ot 
a railroad- station or navigable stream. That portion of the crop of 
1861 which had been brought to the various interior depots has long 
since been taken back to the plantations, by special order of the State 
Governments. 

The cotton will be delivered to any holder of the bonds on demand, 
as provided for in the 4th article of the contract. In the States of 
Alabama and Mississippi, where I have personal knowledge of the manner 
in which the business has been transacted, the cotton has been sampled, 
weighed, marked, and invoiced, and the agents of the bond-holders can 
examine the samples at the offices of the chief agents of the Loan in the 
different States, and take their orders on the planters for the delivery of 
the cotton, without trouble or expense. The cotton obtained under 
this Loan will not be subject to any tax or duty, except the export-duty 
of one-eighth of a cent per lb. existing at the date of the contract. 
I am, Sir, &c, 

C. J. Mc Rae, Agent for the Loan. 

Mr. H. W. Schwartz. 



cc In confirmation of the capacity of the Confederate 
cc Government to get this cotton, in spite of the sham 
cc blockade and sham occupation of the cotton region 
cc ( c now occupied by our army and navy '), it is only 
cc necessary to look at the weekly receipts of Southern 
cc cotton from Southern ports at Liverpool, chiefly 
cc Confederate-Government cotton, lately coming at the 
cc rate of 4,000 bales per week ; and thence to glance at 
cc the returns of cotton actually existing in the South, 
cc made by the British Blue-book from reports of the 
cc British Consuls in Confederate ports. 

cc Mr. McHenry, in that book on c The Cotton 
cc c Trade/ of which I suppose he has sent you a 
<c copy, gives the following estimate of the quantity 
ff of cotton in the Confederate States on September 1, 
Cf 1863 :— 



54 

cc Crop of i860 remaining over on September 1, 1861, 

Bales. 
" At the Ports, including 300 bales new 

crop 37,574 

" In the interior towns 6,200 

<c On the plantations ...... 25,000 

Bales. 
" Crop of 1 86 1 . . . 3,500,000 
„ 1862 . • . 1,000,000 
„ 1863 . . . 800,000 



" Destroyed and damaged, 

equal to ... . 1,350,000 
" Exported, eluded the 

blockade, and taken 

by the Yankees . 150,000 
" Consumed 1,500,000 



5,300,000 
5>3 68 >774 



3,000,000 



cc Estimated stock in the Confederacy on 

September 1, 1863 2^368,774 

" When the present price of cotton (3od. per lb.) is 
" considered, one would think this security fully suffi- 
" cient to cover a debt to Europe of three millions 
cc sterling ! ! [ And that the foreign debt will be first 
cc paid, the recent reported embargo against the ex- 
" portation of any cotton, except in payment of the 
iC loan, very clearly shows. 

" c Our armies' (Mr. Walker's) have not c advanced 
" much into the cotton region' lately ; and the present 
" price of cotton at New York (90 cents) shows how 



cc 



55 

cc much cotton the North can control ; — and that the 
" c pledge of cotton/ so far from being c worthless/ 
" is perfectly good in the eyes of everybody, except the 
" Bright-Cobden people, who wont see, because they 
" shut their eyes obstinately against the light. 

cc But it is too absurd for Mr. Walker, in view of 
the actual attitude of North and South, to talk 
<c about Southern c traitors' ' cotton being all confiscated 
" and forfeited for the uses of c what were once the 
" c United States of America,' according to Earl 
" Russell." 

That is what Secesh said about it. 

But this letter is growing like Jack's bean-stalk, so 
let us be serious at parting. You probably know 
there is a very able paper published in London, called 
the Saturday Review. Well, the irreverent editor of 
that journal, in reviewing Brother Beecher's sensation- 
lecture at Exeter Hall, thus prefaces his criticism : — 

e< As the first year of the American civil war is to the third, so is 
Bishop M'Ilvaine to Mr. Henry Beecher. The clerical emissaries 
who have been sent to advocate the Northern cause in England have 
deteriorated. The Evangelical Bishop's mission was, at the worst, but a 
silent failure ; it simply collapsed from inanity. But the blazing preacher's 
lectures, though equally failing to address the English mind by argument, 
while they surpass in vulgarity and impudence the bishop's milk-and- 
water apologies, perhaps more faithfully reflect the present aspect of the 
contest. The war has become more bloody, more embittered, more 
wicked, and Mr. Beecher is quite worthy of the latter stage of his 
cause." 

As your friend, it is my duty to let you know that 
people say the remark applies as forcibly to the lay as 
to the clerical missionaries of our Government ; and 
that, as Henry Ward Beecher is to Bishop M c Ilvaine, 



56 

so is Robert J. Walker to Thurlow Weed — cf more 
embittered, more wicked," and much more unscru- 
pulous, as well as much more tedious. 

And these impudent fellows (doubtless bought by 
Confederate gold out of the flowing coffers of Jeff. 
Davis) go on to say that, as in that hideous dance of 
devils, the first Reign of Terror, when <c Fraternity 
or Death" were the watchwords in the Old as they 
now are in the New world, honest and scrupulous men 
were driven like sheep to the prison or the guillotine, 
and creatures like Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, 
typified by Seward, Chase, and Sumner, then as now 
crawled up to the high places, and lorded it over the 
mad multitude. 

And they further add, that, to denounce and defame 
better men than themselves, they found tools like 
Barrere, thus described by Lord Macaulay : — 

cc We turn with disgust from the filthy and spiteful 
cc Yahoos of the fiction ; and the filthiest and most 
cc spiteful Yahoo of the fiction was a noble creature 
Cf when compared with the Barrere of history. It is 
" no light thing that a man in high and honourable 
cf public trust — a man who, from his connexions and 
cc position, may be supposed to speak the sentiments of 
cc a large class of his countrymen, should come forward 
cc to demand approbation for a life (a Cause) black 
" with every sort of wickedness, and unredeemed by 
" a single virtue." 

For Barrere spent the last remnant of his long life 
in the service of his old enemies, sedulously employed 



57 

in blackening and perverting the characters and the 
acts of his former friends, and all the principles and 
the men to whom in his earlier and better days he had 
owed his fortune and position. How unenviable the 
elevation to a pedestal beside such a figure as this in 
the Pantheon of history ! — and how happy should we 
be, that our Republican rule is so pure and so elevated 
in its men and in its measures, as to produce no 
Yahoo either in the Presidential chair, nor in its 
foreign service. 

And here I must leave you for the present, in the 
hope that your reward may be adequate to your deserts. 
Yours, fraternally, 

Jonathan Slingsby, 

OF SCREAMERSVILLE. 

P.S. — My Secesh has just handed me some old 

speeches of Jeff. Davis to read. From one of these 

I take this extract, which will show how mean-spirited 

he always was, and how safely you can continue to 

abuse him : — 

" For the wretch who is doomed to go through the 
" world bearing a personal jealousy, or a personal 
" malignity, which renders him incapable of doing 
" justice, and studious of misrepresentation, I can 
" only feel pity ; and, were it possible to feel revenge- 
<c ful, could consign him to no worse punishment 
<c than that of his own tormentors — the vipers nursed 
" in his own breast."— Speech of Jefferson Davis at 
Jackson, Mississippi nth November , 1858. 

[the end.] 



LONDON : 

SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDO& STREET, 

COVENT GARDEN. 






A FAMILIAR EPISTLE 



TO 



ROBERT J. WALKER, 

FORMERLY OF PENNSYLVANIA, LATER OF MISSISSIPPI, MORE 

RECENTLY OF WASHINGTON, AND LAST HEARD OF 

IN MR. COXWELL'S BALLOON. 



FROM 

AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



— " Ridentem dicere verum 
Quid vetat ?" 

Horace. 



TENTH THOUSAND. 





ft 



LONDON: 
SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO., 

66, BROOK STREET, W. 
1863. 

„ , & rw-I 

[ T/ie right of Translation is reserved.] tc^—^Zir* 



AMERICAN WORKS 

EECENTLY PUBLISHED BY 

Messrs. SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND Co. 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED. 

THE COTTON TRADE : its Bearing upon the Prosperity of 

Great Britain and Commerce of the American Republics ; considered in 
connexion with the System of Negro Slavery in the Confederate States. 
By George McHenry. One Volume 8vo, price 10s. 6d. 



THE SOUTH AS IT IS; or, Twenty-one Years' Experience 
in the Southern States of America. By the Rev. T. D. Ozanne, M.A. 

One Volume, post 8vo. 8s. 



THE BIBLE VIEW of AMERICAN SLAVERY. A Letter 
from the Bishop of Vermont (New England) to the Bishop of Penn- 
sylvania. Reprinted from the Philadelphia Mercury of 11th October, 
1863. By F. L. M. 8vo sewed, price 6d. 



The AMERICAN CHURCH and the AMERICAN UNION. 
By Henry Caswall, D.D., Prebendary of Sarum. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d. 



Will shortly be published. 

RANK and FILE of the CONFEDERATE ARMY. By 
Henry Hotze, Confederate States Commercial Agent, late Private in 
the 3rd Alabama Volunteers. 



A BRIEF ANSWER to an IMPORTANT QUESTION; 

being a Letter to Professor Goldwin Smith, from an absolute Believer in 
Holy Scripture. 



V* Other important American works in preparation. 



London: SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND Co., 

6Q, BROOK STREET, W. 



THE BROWN BOOK : 



OR, 



BOOK OF READY REFERENCE, 

FOR THE USE OF LONDON VISITORS AND RESIDENTS IN 

LONDON. 



It will contain every kind of Local Information. 

THE VISITOR WILL FIND 

SELECTED LISTS of HOTELS and LODGING-HOUSES, 

CLASSIFIED TO ACCOMMODATE ALL REQUIREMENTS. 
BIIEAKFAST AND DINING BOOMS ARE CAREFULLY CLASSIFIED. 



ITS HANDY LIST 

WILL BE 

OF ESSENTIAL SEE VICE TO THE RESIDENT 

SHOWING THE 

NEAREST POST-OFFICE, MONEY-ORDER OFFICE, CAB-STAND, POLICE 

STATION, FIRE ENGINE AND ESCAPE STATION, HOSPITAL, 

ETC., ETC., 

TO 

ONE THOUSAND 

OF THE 

PRINCIPAL STREETS OF THE METROPOLIS. 

THERE IS A 

LIST of DAILY TUTOES and GOVERNESSES, 

IN EVERT NEIGHBOURHOOD, AND FOR ALL BRANCHES OF EDUCATION. 

ALSO, 

ALL LIBRARIES, PUBLIC AND CIRCULATING, 

INSTITUTIONS : LITERARY, ARTISTIC, and SCIENTIFIC, 

WITH THEIR LOCALITIES, SPECIALTIES, AND ALL OTHER NEEDFUL INFORMATION. 

AMUSEMENTS: THEATRICAL, MUSICAL, &c, &c, 

WITH DESCRIPTION, PRICES OF ADMISSION, AND OTHER PARTICULARS. 

CHARITIES OF EVERY KIND, 

WITH FULL INFORMATION A3 TO SPECIALITY, WHEREABOUTS, AND MEANS OF 
OBTAINING ACCESS TO THE BENEFITS OFFERED; 

WITH 

OTHER INFORMATION OF A SIMILAR KIND, NOW ONLY TO BE GAINED AT 
CONSIDERABLE EXPENSE OF TIME AND TROUBLE, BUT TO BE GATHERED 

IN A GLANCE FROM THE PAGES OF 

THE BROWN BOOK. 



Published Half-Yearly, Price 2s. 6d. 
LONDON: SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO.,* 

CO, LIIOOX STREET, \Y. 









xg^e 



3g> 



S3? 









1> >'- 



2>;> "> 



3SR 









2B» a "> > 



^^ 









2» 


g> 5> 


>- 






Sb^O&S^ 






• .»': 


yyy 


>■ ' ~^m 


i -2>->3 


T> 


:» 3 


U 


■ ^> 


5S> 




33> 


^ :» 


CT> 


ap 


>1* 


i» 


■^ 


2» 


:-»X> 


■'fXZ 


3P> 


j>^t> m 


>;*> 


^sT ,?-> 





»^% 
r*? 

•B^*^ 



3> _3t2> ^>? r ^ 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2010 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 






2||pb» 5 









>> > x> 
>:> > ■"■■xg> 






>5> > * 






5> Jjg> ' 


3> 


]jTj8P> 


X> 


>2-3*» ■ 


X> 


7>l3B&- 


H> 


5l39^ - 1 


53t> 


^3R>. 


2S> 


>zs> 


■SJP 


jK>>.-> 


>Z> 


S>"> ; 


or> " 


g»p 


jT> 




>» 


>39l>> > 


2» 


m&^ 


£3p 




23i> 


OS>"' 


o> 




i i> ~> 


















> 5S> 

> 3 J& > 

> 3L3-? 3 



^>^i»^> 






>.^>^i>x^jc>. 









323»JI* 


> J» J 


Sao* 


j *D& 


^fo> 


ym^ 


:>22>_>x : 


> ^ y 


2Z*l23o 


D»> 


a^2>^ 


J3>S> 


*^*> > j 


^» 


I£> 3 T J 


»z> 


^x-i , ■-- 


*-~» S3 



JEma 

CB»0 • ? 















